Catch a Glimpse
A/N: This is my first time writing for this universe. I am actually borrowing my own OC from two of my Big Bang Theory fics after I considered how well she could blend with Reid. If she comes off a tiny bit Mary Sue, you will see why after a few chapters, she has lots to hide of her true self and with good reason.
Also, I realize this chapter is highly Rossi in some parts but it's the best way I could come up with to introduce her. I tend to use all characters in a universe, but I will have plenty of Reid/OC moments as time goes on.
Please review, I love feedback!
I do not own Criminal Minds or any of the characters other than my OC, Christine.
"Are you sure we can't convince you to let us take you out for your birthday?" JJ asked as the group approached Rossi's front door in anticipation of his cooking his birthday dinner tonight. She didn't think it was fair on him, but she was secretly excited; Rossi had the best sense around the kitchen of anyone on the team.
Reid followed suit with the rest of the team members in their efforts to bring Rossi out for the night. For several weeks it seemed something was off with the eldest member of the team. Ever since the case in northern Louisiana, and an odd and secret request to Reid, he simply hadn't been the same. "I do believe the idea of celebrating your birthday is for us to give to you, not you cooking for us."
Rossi chuckled under his breath at his friends, opening the front door to his large home. He loves to cook, sharing a meal with them is exactly how he wants to spend his birthday... Just food, friends and no new cases. For the last several months he had been beating himself up, trying to figure out if he was going crazy or if he was right about—well, at least tonight he could just be himself, with his friends, in the place he's most comfortable- his kitchen. Besides, he saw that Garcia made a cake. That counts for a lot in his book, her chocolate ganache was legendary.
He ushered everyone into the dark living room before turning on the light and facing something he didn't expect to see. She wore the same warmhearted expression as when he last saw her, nearly five years ago. She was older, now twenty-eight if he remembered correctly. Secretly, he always held a small vigil on her birthday which is the day before his. He spent last night with several silent prayers for her while in his hotel room before the team wrapped up its most recent case.
"Hey Daddy." her naturally bright pink lips framed her slightly lopsided, mischievous smile to perfectly complement her blushed-pale skin.
Reid, resident genius of the BAU team noticed two things. One, the obvious question as to why the woman around his age was now being twirled about in Rossi's arms after calling him 'daddy' when they all knew he had no children. The second, this girl was incredibly beautiful. So beautiful in fact that commenting on the first fact, or speaking at all, was entirely lost on him.
What man couldn't resist those greenish-brown eyes, long dark lashes, bouncing espresso locks and perfectly feminine curves? He was stunned by her, and he didn't care whether or not everyone else noticed. Of course, being profilers they did.
Trying to save Reid from an embarrassing staring contest, Emily had to ask. "What do you mean 'daddy'?" Rossi being a dad was news to her.
Rossi turned to them with a smile as he wrapped a proud arm around the younger woman. He couldn't believe that she was here, he wanted to ask her what happened, where she had been all these years, but he didn't care, she was here and maybe she could stay- he forgot to answer the questions of the team, looking back to her, hope and astonishment both filling his features.
"You're surprised to see me aren't you?" she gave a knowing smile. Last time he saw her she was acting as a decoy to lure away an unsub from a potential victim. She was assumed to have been killed in the process.
"I always thought maybe, sometimes I would think you, I just never let myself hope until two months ago."
Hotch cleared his throat, aware that everyone was awkwardly waiting for the same explanation he desired.
Christine caught it and smiled at the group she so often secretly observed rally around her favorite man in the world. "I'm Christine." she offered before elbowing Rossi into action again.
Quickly, Rossi picked up. "Christine is my god daughter. Christine, this is Hotch, the unit chief," she began shaking hands with each of them. She already knew their names, and she was sure that her god father knew that and was protecting her many, many secrets. Of all the people in the world, he was the only person outside her immediate family who ever learned the secret. She entirely trusted him, much more so than her own father, but then, Uncle Dave wasn't responsible for what she had to become.
Penelope was an interesting character, she even shook her hand with flair and caring, a true reflection of her personality as had been observed in the reports. JJ and Emily were both exactly as she pegged them, friendly yet reserved. Derek was certainly handsome and charming but not her type. Mr. Tall dark and brooding Hotch was appealing in his own sense, but the tall skinny nerd looking at her with clear admiration really got her boat floating. So nervous, shy, taken with her visibly and tall and handsome! She had been curious about him for years. She knew he had some social obstacles to overcome far different from her own. She knew he had a mother in a psychiatric treatment facility and a former drug problem. She knew he was a genius but not his IQ, and she wondered if it could compare to her own.
Rossi noticed that shared gaze between the two, the one where a man just fell for a woman instantly and she is intrigued. Normally he would be protective, but he had the vague thought that if anyone could keep up with her of the entire group it would be Reid. She could have her pick, she could go after Morgan and snag him easily. She might even find an appealing challenge in breaking Hotch out of his shell. But she would unwittingly do a number on any of them. She never could really grasp how much power she had over men even when she wasn't trying to woo them to her will. That was part of her occupation and general appeal that she seemed to not fully understand. She had a power that could bring Reid to his knees, but he would try to not have to feel the need to protect him from the heartache Christine doled out as second nature.
"So, what suddenly brings you here?" he asked as everyone shuffled into the kitchen, pleased that Christine instantly reached for the extra apron intending to be set to work. He taught her everything he knew when it came to the kitchen when she was just a toddler learning at his feet.
"I came for your birthday of course, silly." she caught the curious looks everyone held across the island, and the examining gaze of a certain fellow genius. "And," she pulled out a news article clipping from her pocket "I got your message. When did you learn to code?"
"Actually, I wrote that at his request." Reid remembered the message Rossi asked him to place into the Friday obituary section of a local paper in Louisiana just before the end of the case. It asked Belle to come see the beast, whatever that was supposed to mean. "Did you have a key or something?" he wrote that to a near indecipherable level at Rossi's request. It took him two hours to make it work.
"Nope" Christine replied nonchalantly, not looking up from her chopping that came to consume most of her attention. "I just happened on it in the paper a couple months ago. Reading codes had been a childhood talent of mine since I was three and Uncle Dave taught me to read." That got everyone's attention.
Reid was fascinated, utterly intrigued by the strange, happy and impressive woman in front of him. "If I may ask, what is your IQ."
Rossi laughed a hard syllable to interrupt Morgan's look to Reid in an attempt to correct the genius man from his faux pas. "You two have to say your IQ's in unison."
"Why?" they asked, in unison.
"Indulge a man on his birthday." He gently pleaded, knowing this would give him a good deal of fun to see the reaction this gets.
They looked at one another, shrugged, and gave a silent count down. "187" they each replied, to the amazement of one another and to the rest of the group.
Reid was shaken from his newest staring contest with the equally stunned Christine by Emily's rhetorical question. "What are the odds of meeting someone with that exact same IQ?"
Both, in unison yet again replied. "1 in 400,208."
'Holy crap.' It was all anyone could think, including Christine.
Rossi was definitely loving this birthday more and more. Her being here made everything perfect but her tendency to have great shock value when she was safe enough to almost be herself… well it was entertaining to see her ability to surprise the team that has seen everything.
"Reid, why don't you get the champagne you forgot out of my car." Hotch suggested with his wise tone, effectively breaking the younger man from his revelry on meeting a true equal.
Reid set out, a little dazed and returned just in time to hear Christine's next statement to her god father as they finished cooking off the first course. "So, I have a sort of present for you in the morning if I can come by the office."
"You mean you being here wasn't it?" And, he reminded himself, he owed her a present for her birthday yesterday.
"Well, what I have tomorrow, and the wine I brought back from the old village."
Rossi's eyes lit up. "Do you have it now?"
"Six bottles. I already put them in your cellar." She didn't even have to ask, she just went down to fetch three of the bottles, knowing their profile perfectly matched their entrée for the evening.
While she was down there Reid asked Rossi. "What village would that be?"
"Oh, our families both date back to a small village on the southernmost tip of Calabria. The wine comes from this small vineyard at the edge of the village's grounds. That she could get six bottles, it's incredible. The vintage is so rare you have to actually convince the owner in person to let you buy a bottle. But then, she always was good at convincing people to do anything. She's a trained profiler as well as many, many other things."
"Oh come on now," Christine prayed as she set the bottles down and began searching for the corkscrew. "You know I hate it when you do that." She really did, she certainly preferred modesty to looking like a freak.
"What, praise you?" she nodded at him. "Now, I won't have any of that. Three doctorates is nothing to be ashamed of, and I won't hear you say otherwise." He was stern and kind, much like the father he sometimes acted as to her.
"Three?" Reid was liking this more and more. "In what, may I ask?"
"Psychology, chemistry and linguistics."
"And…" Rossi pressed. He had always been proud of the girl. True, she was forced into most of this as part of circumstance, but she fought her way through life.
She sighed, resigned. "And an MD. I was a trauma surgeon." She shot a look to Rossi that spoke 'happy now?'
"Incredible. When did you find the time? I only managed two before I was twenty."
"As did I. Chemistry and my MD came first. But I jumped out of those the day I passed my boards at nineteen. Uncle Dave had encouraged me to stay in school and keep working to something else while I was still a resident, as I had become unfulfilled with the work. So I studied psychology. Linguistics just sorta came to me, I was raised to travel all over the world so I spoke everything already.I got both at twenty three." She shrugged, anyone with her IQ could have easily done more as well, most just seemed to have more passsion and commitment to a path than her- with one secret exception.
Rossi was pleased with himself and with Christine. She was more open in the last half hour with his team than he had ever seen her with others before. Her whole life had been lived in a very large tangle of lies. He felt, well like he had her back.
They sat to dinner, the group regaling her on stories about her god father's work and little fun stories. Christine had some of her own to share as well, such as when Rossi's first wife was teaching her how to sew and Rossi insisted he could do better, took over the quilt and ended up sewing it to himself. She was five, but it was one of her favorite memories of all time.
There was true camaraderie, an easy acceptance of Christine into the group of coworkers that so long ago became more than friends, a family. JJ and Emily had adopted seats on either side of her, even if just to get a good look at Reid's reactions to her. Reid had gotten into a rather confusing conversation (to the rest of the group) with her about news of magnetic monopoles and Rossi was pleased to see that Christine reserved her usually luminous smile, (which once took down the Vice President in its charm) from Reid. It was relieving to see that while definite interest was there, she wasn't outright trying to break the boy's heart.
Rossi found himself engulfed in smiles as toasts with his favorite wine filled the house with sounds of clanking glasses. Everyone was boisterous, laughing, Morgan nearly in tears he laughed so hard. He was looking forward to however long he could have this sense of family, and was anxious to see what sort of surprise Christine had in mind for tomorrow. She was always great at bringing it to a whole new level, good or bad.