Chapter 1: Reeling
Everything was quiet at the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI.
Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner was in his office, trying to keep his mind focussed on the task at hand and not on what his team had gone through the past few weeks.
Senior SSA David Rossi was staring out the window of his own office into the bullpen where SSAs Derek Morgan and Dr. Spencer Reid were seated at their desks.
FBI Cadet Agent Ashley Seaver was drinking coffee in the break area, watching them as well, wondering why she was still here and what she was going to do now.
Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia was seated in her office, surrounded by several computer screens that she still had yet to turn on. Instead of doing so, she was looking through a scrap book she had put together during the Christmas holidays just a few months previously. One page contained photos of her and Reid with their godson, Henry LaMontagne and his parents, their former media liaison Jennifer "JJ" Jareau and her boyfriend Will. It even contained a newspaper clipping announcing Henry's birth. Another two full pages contained photos of her with Morgan, and another two with her boyfriend, fellow technical analyst Kevin Lynch.
It was difficult for her to look at the next page. It contained photos of her and JJ, along with their friend and colleague – former colleague Emily Prentiss. The rest of the pages would get pictures added to them as the years went by, but this, this page would never change – never.
No matter how safe she felt when she was surrounded by her computer screens, searching for the smallest details that made an unsub the scumbag that he or she was, there would always be the knowledge that her teammates – her family – was out in the real world risking their lives to save someone else's. And then there were times that that risk would turn to harm, and that harm would turn to death. That's what happened to Emily, and she didn't want it to happen to anyone else she cared about.
Despite how much she was hurting right now, Garcia gave herself a thought. She thought it lucky that they already had Seaver, who they had already worked with in order for her to continue her remedial training. Lucky because, from Garcia's view, Seaver would be the most likely candidate to continue Emily's job. Though it was still painful to think of it that way, she found that it would be easier to work with someone who was (somewhat) feeling the same loss as them to come and work with them, instead of some random new guy from Counter Intelligence or something like that who didn't understand the pain they were all going through.
But Seaver felt differently. Sure, it would be great to get to actually work as a profiler at the BAU, but she still felt like she was barging in on this team while they were still reeling from the loss of Emily. But why did this all have to happen now. As she sipped her coffee and watched Reid and Morgan at their desks and thought about how they'd both approached her with open arms when she had started her training. How Morgan had given her insight on fishing techniques while they were searching for an unsub in Louisiana. Or how Reid was about to give her details – details she now wasn't sure she wanted to know about – that had to do with why her father killed 25 women over the course of ten years.
As these she mulled over these thoughts, she was brought out of her trance by a text from Hotch. It said: My office. Now.