AN: So basically, this is my new CM fic. Let's just say that Emily Prentiss had never come to join the FBI, and instead, a gorgeous brunette called Amy Blake did, and managed to capture some hearts... What would happen then?
Read and review!
New Agent, New Story
"Meeting in five minutes." Aaron Hotchner stated briskly, breezing past without so much as a good morning. Jennifer Jureau, Spencer Reid, Penelope Garcia and Derek Morgan stared at where he had just been standing, all still in the process of downing caffeine- a necessity to make it through the day. "He has got to take it easy," Garcia sighed crankily, and Morgan flashed her a big smile, leaning over the counter to pick up his steaming mug of instant coffee from where it was resting beside her. "I hear ya, angel." He commented, taking a long, eager sip from his coffee. "This stuff is disgusting," JJ sighed irritably, finishing her own cup with a stressed gulp and tying her blonde hair in a neat bun, juggling an armful of yellowed folders. "Did you know that nearly 57% of all instant coffee-" Reid began, but shut up abruptly when their second boss in command, Jason Gideon, strolled past almost leisurely. "Ready for the meeting?" he asked sagely, but authority rang in his voice as the entire team stumbled up to their feet, heading directly to the conference room. "What could this be about now? It's not a new case," JJ whispered, and Morgan shrugged, grinning mischievously. "Maybe Hotch smiled, and the public was so shocked, they're making it an official holiday. Hotch Smiles Day… imagine that, no work for a whole day either." Morgan wisecracked, causing JJ and Garcia to chuckle, whilst Reid walked ahead, chatting eagerly to Gideon, in complete oblivion to their conversation. "Something that's actually likely to happen, Morgan," JJ responded dryly, but Garcia piped up, smirking wickedly. "It's the BAU, Jayj sweetie. They're practically begging us to expect the unexpected." Garcia winked coyly, causing both Morgan and JJ to laugh, as Reid lingered behind, allowing Gideon to walk into the conference room ahead of them. "What's so funny?" They all walked as a united force, ready for a brand new day… not quite knowing what was waiting for them, and certainly expecting the unexpected.
Amy Blake folded her arms over her chest, frowning up at the towering building in front of her. It was all sleek silver, steel and chrome, modern architecture, and above all, horribly intimidating. It was the BAU in Quantico, the FBI… her new and also old place of work.
Amy sighed deeply as she ruffled a hand through her long chocolate brown waves of hair absently, wondering how she had even gotten here. No less than a few months ago, she had been working up a storm in the Sex Crimes unit in DC, excelling and being promoted. She had been living the dream, going higher and higher in her job, slowly feeding into the politics side of things thanks to the eager encouragement of her boss, and living in a beautiful penthouse with her also FBI profiler and high achiever boyfriend, Jesse. Jesse had been in a different unit to her, naturally, so they rarely saw each other at work, which probably helped add to why their relationship had faded out so badly, just like everything else in her life had in DC. But, she couldn't and wouldn't dwell on her past now she was here- Quantico, ready to work amongst a sea of genius profilers. She frowned, wondering what she was going to be faced with when she walked past those doors, and into her new life.
She had resigned from her old job after something happened, something that had momentarily changed her life and shuffled everything she thought she knew around rapidly, and before she could take it back; she had been relocated… here, in this unfamiliar town, in this alien city. She had recently hunted down a slightly breaking down but nevertheless great loft apartment, and, after endless, restless pacing, decided to head to work hours earlier than expected. At the BAU. In all honesty, she had nothing better to do, and the BAU? Amy had practically been dreaming about the BAU since childhood. Well, not quite, she hadn't been crayoning pictures of herself as a federal agent, dressed in a flattering blue FBI vest, hunting down vicious serial killers… but close enough. She had wanted this for what seemed like forever, but now that it was on her doorstep, here she was, wishing that instead, the opportunity would go away.
Amy still couldn't really believe this was all happening.
Rumours were that fairly recently, their own sex crimes expert Elle Greenway resigned, and Amy was here to fill her shoes. Here's hoping her shoes aren't ridiculously huge. Amy smirked to herself, and squared her shoulders and pushed the glass door, walking inside the building with a fierce determination.
This was her new life now.
"So, what's going on?" It was Morgan who broke the silence, and the entire team watched as Gideon and Hotch exchanged brief, meaningful looks.
"We have a new agent arriving later today." Hotch watched carefully as shock registered over each of their faces, replaced quickly by curiosity.
Hotch lifted a finger, effectively silencing any questions that were sure to come (mainly hurried rambling from Reid, no doubt) and began to speak.
"Her name is Amy Blake, she's a sex crimes expert from the DC unit. I believe she's twenty-four years old, incredibly intelligent, a very capable agent from her reports… you get my point." The team were quiet, thoughtful, when a timid, mousy-haired woman appeared at the door.
"Agent Hotchner? I'm sorry to interrupt your, ah, meeting, but there's someone here to see you." Hotch stood up, transforming from a sympathetic team member to a businesslike boss. "I'm busy-" he began evenly, but the woman interrupted. "She says you're her new boss… Amy Blake?" A silence fell across the room, and Hotch sighed.
"I'll guess you'll have to bring her in then, won't you? Thanks, Cynthia." The woman nodded, and disappeared.
"I thought you said she wasn't coming until later today," Reid pointed out finally, and Hotch frowned. "That's what I thought."
Amy followed the timid yet polite woman down the bullpen –Cindy? Or was it Cynthia, Amy honestly could not remember- and pretended not to examine her surroundings as she walked along, feeling and ignoring curious eyes following her every step.
Cindy/Cynthia paused outside a heavy door, and Amy nodded shortly. "Thank you," She said politely, as Cindy/Cynthia scurried off. Amy was left staring at the huge double doors, a perplexed expression on her face.
"Guess it's now or never," She muttered under her breath as she walked in boldly.
Amy had always been confident. She had grown up with confidence, and even when she was terrified or nervous or anxious inside, she brushed it away and pretended to be at ease. It was one of her many gifts, and she was grateful for it now when she faced seven unfamiliar faces, all of them staring at her with an intense curiosity that instantly made her uncomfortable.
She looked at each face, memorizing and studying them quickly. Firstly, she examined the person closest to her- an almost vanilla but yet very pretty blonde woman, with big doe-like blue eyes and a wary smile. She wore a simple blue v-neck sweater and black workpants, which Amy immediately reflected as her personality- straightforward, very secluded when it came to her personal life, enjoyed the simpler things of life, felt the need to give the outer appearance that her life was perfect. Beside her was another woman, with wildly curly platinum blonde hair, red-framed glasses, and a pink fuzzy pen that she was tapping against her scarlet red lips. She was the epitome of kooky, and flashed a cheery grin at her. She was wearing a bright scarlet and black print ankle-length dress, with a quirky military jacket thrown on top, with huge electric blue fuzz ball things propped in her hair, which immediately signalled to Amy that this woman was someone who was cheery and optimistic, and enjoyed to be as creative and unique as possible, maybe to hide any traces of emotional turmoil she faced at work.
There were two men standing up, and she immediately recognized them as authoritative figures. One had a stern face, and was watching her with that same stern expression, but there was something behind those carefully guarded eyes that caught Amy's attention immediately. Simply put, she immediately recognized him as a good guy. He was dressed in a simple black suit, with a dark blue tie- someone serious and businesslike, who looked and felt the part of authority… someone who's job meant everything to him.
The other was much older, but somehow wiser, and she immediately respected him. There was a surprising understanding, almost calmness in his eyes that she immediately admired. He was dressed in simple comfort wear, creased jeans and a tucked in red plaid long sleeve button up, which was simple, normal, unnoticeable. It told her he was calculatingly intelligent, but yet slightly oblivious to everything else about life.
There were also two other younger men, both also watching her. One had close cropped black hair, coffee skin and a big, flashy grin that he was aiming at her. He was charming, and she immediately recognized him as incredibly handsome. Admiration was apparent in his soulful eyes, but she knew a player when she saw one. He was dressed in a tight black t-shirt and dark jeans, which showed her he was cutting edge, tough- but with a sensitive side, as they all did, really.
And… the last boy. She chose to use the word boy in her mind, because boy suited him more than man. He was skinny, awkwardly gangly, and had chin-length lanky caramel hair and pale skin. Her wasn't textbook good looking, but there was something oddly appealing about him, something intriguing that Amy immediately caught onto. His eyes were a beautiful hazel, and they stared into hers with an admirable intelligence. He wore an array of geek-chic clothes, a cardigan, button up, loose tie, and brown baggy slacks. In other words, he honestly didn't care what he looked like, as long as it was neat and preppy, organized and smart- a lot like his personality.
She paused, and smiled. She had a naturally warm, sunny smile, and nearly all of the faces smiled back. (Except for that stern looking one, he just managed a vaguely welcoming quirk of the lips.)
"Hey." Amy said slowly, still smiling. "I'm Amy Blake."
"She's here? Now?" Penelope repeated; leaning over the table like the news was a piece of juicy gossip from her high school days, an excited grin spreading over her face. "Yes, Garcia." Hotch said almost sardonically. "So, where'd you find this girl?" Morgan questioned, leaning back in his chair. "She resigned from her old job in the DC unit, and requested to be assigned to another base. We looked over her file, which is incredibly impressive, and we asked her to join us." JJ raised her eyebrows. "DC? Wow." She said simply, voicing everyone's thoughts. "Well, I hope she's awesome, because we really could use another awesome female around here." Garcia added, grinning happily.
They all stopped mid-conversation when the door handle moved, and a woman walked in. The first thing everyone noticed was that she was strikingly beautiful, gorgeous even. She had long hair, the colour of melting chocolate, Reid mused to himself, that was wavy and silky and, when it was caught in the sunlight, fractured into a million different shades of gold and brown. She was tall, and moved with a natural grace, and was almost exotic yet cute, whilst being curvy and sexy and timelessly beautiful all at once. She was a walking oxymoron. She had a neutral expression on her face, and she looked thoughtful as she looked around the room briefly, before turning back to them. Her eyes were big and a deep brown, but everyone in the team recognized something in them that they didn't expect to see- something haunted.
Damn. Morgan was thinking, stunned. He considered putting his fingers to his mouth and giving a low wolf whistle, but decided against it when he remembered Hotch was in the same room as them too. And there was nothing scarier than a pissed off Hotch, after all. She stared at all of them evenly, before her pretty face broke into a big, heartbreaking grin. The entire team instinctively smiled back, and she opened her mouth. Her voice was lilting, musical, with a slight, charming Australian accent. "Hey." She began. "I'm Amy Blake." Hotch moved quickly, immediately all business. "Nice to meet you at last, Amy. I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, this is SSA Jason Gideon, our media liason Jennifer Jureau, technical analyst Penelope Garcia, SSA Derek Morgan and Dr Spencer Reid." Amy nodded, smiling at all of them. "How about I let you quickly introduce yourself," Hotch offered, and after the briefest moment of hesitation, Amy nodded sharply, straightening her shoulders.
"Hi, as you all probably know, I'm twenty-four, I graduated from Yale University, but I grew up in Australia, as you can probably tell." She smirked wryly. "I have a photographic memory, and I'm secretly a massive geek inside, but don't tell anybody." She flashed another sunny smile at everyone, and they couldn't help but smile back, and she immediately picked out the shy beam filtrating from the boyish one's face- Spencer, she recalled, before continuing. "…And, as much as I love examining crimes, I'm most looking forward to getting to know all of you." She smiled, and the handsome one, Derek, grinned. "And it'sgreat to meet you," he added quickly, and she fought the urge to roll her eyes, as Hotch stood back up. "We're going to get briefed on a new case in about two hours, so everyone return to what you were going before. Um… Reid, can you show Amy to her desk?" Amy turned to Reid, as the rest of the team filtered out from the room. "Hi," Amy said to Reid, and he looked to the ground, mumbling an indecipherable response. "How long have you been working with the BAU?" She finally asked, as he led them out of the conference room. Reid looked at her nervously. "About a year and a half, well, actually, 465 days, which is one year and one hundred days." He suddenly rambled, and looked to the ground again, clearly embarrassed. Amy fought the urge to laugh, finding it almost endearing, and simply smiled at him. "So, where's this desk of mine?"
"So, what do you think?" The minute Hotch had dismissed them, Garcia had headed directly to the break room, where surely enough, the majority of the team was gathered. "Think of what?" Morgan questioned nonchalantly, causing JJ to turn and give him a withering look. "The newbie," Garcia responded quickly. "Well, I for one, think she's the most adorable federal agent ever. And she seems nice too, but we all know looks can be deceiving." Garcia gave them all her best conspiratorial look. "She's hot as hell," Morgan added, grinning slowly. "And apparently she's a great agent. I just hope she's a great person too," JJ said thoughtfully, not noticing when Morgan and Garcia exchanged knowing glances. It was no secret that JJ had never really had a particular fondness for Greenway, the agent Amy was replacing.
"We'll just have to wait and see," Garcia announced, grinning.