Training Days and Moxie Juice

by 10th Muse

Takes place after 7 Seconds. Emily finds Hotch in his office, she goes to him and tells him about her last training day in Quantico and what happened after.

This didn't turn out what I wanted but I'm going to leave it as is. This actually takes place after 7 Seconds (Season3, Episode5)

-I do not own any characters from the TV series, Criminal Minds. Only the ones I created.

. Hoped you'll enjoy this one friendly one shot story.

10th Muse

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Criminal Minds

One Shot – Training days and Moxie juice

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She was alone in the BAU when she heard the doors opened, looking up from her paperwork, Emily was surprised to see him walking up to his office.

She watched him as he made his way to his office; he was hunched over in a dejected mode and he was still in his suit.

She figured he either had not made it home or he had another fight with Haley again and hadn't wanted to go home and was seeking the office as a refuge.

At first, she thought about leaving him to himself but at the last moment, she pushed her chair away from her desk and removed something from the bottom drawer before stepping away from it.

He had left the door opened, she noticed.

He was looking out the other window.

He usually did that when he was in that mood; it was one of his tells. She smiled to herself. He had a few.

"Wanna talk?"

He ignored her.

She stepped into his office and placed the items on his desk. "My final test in the FBI Academy." She took a deep breath. "There were only ten of us remaining in the class. We started out with twenty-five." She smiled to herself as she recalled that day. "My partner and I were competing neck to neck in points; we were only point ten apart."

Hotch remained facing the window but Emily knew he was watching her through the reflection.

"During that assignment, one of my classmates, she thought she had it figured out." Emily smiled sadly. "She was arrogant and cocky. She told the rest of the class she majored in forensics and criminology in USF." She folded her arms across her chest leaning against the edge of the desk. "She had been the class leader from the beginning of the term, and we were cool about it. We trusted her judgment and her leadership all that time." She nodded to herself. "Except for a couple of times when a few of us did question her mental capacity when it came to children and kidnapping cases, but we made it through in the end...up until this final assignment; two shooters at an elementary school and they had locked themselves in a classroom located furthest in the main building and most inaccessible to the police. They cut off all communications as well; there were 12 2nd graders and just one teacher."

Hotch had turned around by this time and was listening to her, "What happened?"

"Lindsey, our team leader, assigned herself the lead hostage negotiator while she assigned my partner and I to run the camera lines into the classroom."

Hotch shook his head, "Priorities should be the welfare of the children."

Emily gave him the look, "You're preaching to the choir." He smiled softly. She waved her hand about her as she continued, "I won't bore you with the minute details but needless to say her negotiation skills was not effective in the process, she cracked." Emily shrugged.

"What happened? I want to know the details."

She nodded. "She assigned two outside the building in hopes they could get a view of the shooters. And three outside the perimeters working as snipers."

Hotch nodded, "SOP, so far so good."

She nodded, "Yeah, everything was going pretty well. Except we couldn't get a clear view of the shooters, only that one of them was female."

Hotch, "Quite unusual but not exactly."

She looked at him, "Yes, exactly. We were given only four hours' time limit before the shooter execute the teacher, then a child every hour."

Hotch nodded.

"We tried to convince Lindsey to analyze the shooters. We had their profiles, but she was not listening to my partner and I. There was a deeper issue than a simple hostage takeover."

Hotch stared at her in disbelief. "That was rather a crucial error on her part, she does not trust the team."

She smiled, "Tell me about it. So, Steve and I thought about going over her head and talked to the rest of the team, we wanted to replace her as team leader. Conrad, who was her boyfriend was not going for it as he was loyal to her, ratted on us.

He looked at expectantly. "She was not pleased with the team, I take it?"

Emily chuckled, "That's an understatement! Lindsey was mad as heck. She totally had a field day with us and called the instructors and had us reported."

Hotch nodded, "I'd expect that coming."

She glanced at him, "Our instructors told her she was the team leader, she must handle it." Emily frowned suddenly as she recalled that day. "She threw the game."

Hotch raised his brow, "Pardon?"

"She went into the classroom without informing anyone, unarmed."

"And?"

"And in the process, she forced the shooters' hands, they took her hostage in exchange for children and the teacher."

Hotch thought about it for a moment and tilted his head, "It was a risky move but unwise."

"Yeah, but it worked. The children were freed, and so was the teacher." Emily said softly.

"What happened then?"

Emily bent her head and stared at her hands as she began to pick her nails. "Lindsey failed. The four hours were up."

"But your objective was to free the children and the teacher within the given time."

Emily looked up at him and shook her head, "The teacher didn't make it."

"I don't understand, you said..."

She nodded as she held up her hand, "Let me give you the quick profile of the female shooter, she was one of the students' mother; she and her husband was going through a messy divorce and a horrible custody battle."

Hotch shook his head; he sighed, "It's always the children that becomes the victims."

She watched him for a second before she looked away. "I'm sorry, Hotch." She said softly.

He nodded. "Go on." He encouraged her.

"We found out that the mother was losing custody of the child, and in desperation, she sought help from her brother to get her child. But they thought of a better plan by masking as militias and stormed into the classroom. Masked and wearing camouflaged uniforms, no one knew who they were.

Hotch watched Emily and saw a look on her face, "There was something...something else happened."

She grinned crookedly, "Nothing slips pass you. You're right. You see, it was actually not the teacher who left with the children but the mother."

"What happened to the teacher?"

"Lindsey accidentally killed her in the connecting bathroom." Emily stated simply.

"Really?"

"Yeah, there was some sort of confrontation between the female shooter, the teacher and Lindsey. And in the process, Lindsey accidentally discharged her weapon on the wrong person."

Hotch frowning, "Wait a minute, if she killed one of the objectives, the mission is over. Your whole class failed."

Emily smiled, "Yes but she was not going to lose. So she exchanged the IDs of the shooter and the teacher."

"How did she managed it?"

"Lindsey knew they were all cadets, she bribed them. She told them she'd change their grades electronically."

He raised his brows in shock, "Wow, they bought it?"

Emily nodded, "Yeah, but later one of the cadets, she played the role of the shooter, got scared and told Steve, my partner who was her boyfriend. We convinced her to tell the instructors."

"Cadets will do anything to change and cheat." He nodded. "Then again, honesty trumps out."

"I bet you never cheated in your training days."

He shook his head, "No, but there were a couple in my class who did."

"Really?"

He nodded and said, "But I wanted to know what happened to your class."

She smiled, "We were given a second chance and a new assignment. We passed with an overall A."

"What about this Lindsey?"

"She handed her resignation but the class convinced the instructors that she did it with good intentions, you know the good of one outweigh the many, blah, blah, blah..." She waved her hand about her. "But Lindsey knew she really lost her moxie juice. So she packed her bags and had her mother placed her into a private clinic." Emily took a deep breath and blew it out, "Before she left, she came to my room and left a file, it was her pre-screen psych evaluation."

"Wait," Hotch stared at her, "What was she doing with it? It's a sensitive file and only FBI psychologists has access to them."

Emily smiled, "I told you she's pretty smart. She hacked into the system and after reading the Doc's eval of her, she doctored her eval."

"She cheated to get into the Academy?" Hotch looked shocked. "Why?"

"Her grandfather had always wanted a son in the FBI, since there were no sons in the family but girls, it was expected of her."

Hotch frowned, "Family pressure, high expectations, bully for him."

"Ever heard of Everett H. Warner?"

Hotch nodded, "Of course, everyone in the bureau...wait, Lindsey's grandfather is Senator Warner, former FBI's Deputy Director of Intel?"

She nodded, "The very one."

"Dear God." He muttered.

She picked up an item from Hotch's desk she had placed earlier, "This is a picture of Lindsey Warner." She handed it to him.

He looked at the photo and nodded, "She could have been a model."

She grinned, "Knew you'd say that." She teased him.

He looked up from the photograph to her, "What? I was just complimenting her."

She shook her head, "I'm teasing, Hotch. And yes, she should have been; all the male cadets were hot for her."

He placed the photo on the desk and picked up a second item, another photo. "This one...is this her?" his brows furrowed deeply.

Emily nodded sadly, "Taken when I last saw her, which was three years ago."

"What happened?" Gone was the cheery beauty and flawless skin, her bright sparkly blue eyes and shiny blonde curls, replaced with sadness, gauntness, and hopelessness. Her eyes had a haunted look of despair and her beautiful blonde curls were long and lanky and greasy. "She doesn't look the same, except for the eyes which looked very sad and lost."

Emily sighed, "I received a call last week from her mother; Lindsey was well enough to go home to see her for the weekend but something happened and it triggered an episode or something. Her mother found her in the bathtub with both wrists slit." Emily sniffed.

"I'm sorry, Prentiss. I wished the outcome had been better."

Emily looked away, "Lindsey was never the same since the break at the Academy. In a sense, we failed her."

"You didn't know, Emily. As you'd said, she lied in her pre-screen, so she lied to herself, she was a broken person a long time ago, but she managed to last so long."

Emily nodded and removed something from her pocket and handed it to Hotch, he held it for closer inspection; it was an FBI coin with the logo on one side and the inscription on the other side; Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity, and the year of her graduation.

"This would have been Lindsey's when she graduated from the Academy. Her grandfather was going to present this to her." Emily sighed again. "Mrs. Warner gave this to me when I graduated, she told me this is what Lindsey asked her to do as she was not able to uphold her promise to her grandfather." She began to tear, but she manage to continue, "Lindsey was buried in a private ceremony, only her mother and I were there. Her grandfather, Senator Warner was too ashamed to attend her funeral." She sniffed.

Hotch swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, Emily. I didn't know that." He held up the coin and as she took it, he held her hand and pulled her to him.

Emily looked up at him in stunned surprise but without any word, she let him embraced her as he wrapped his hands around her. "Thanks for sharing."

She nodded into his embrace.

They stood there in his office for a while before they separated, Emily pocketed the coin. "I'd better get back to my work," she nodded at him as she walked towards the door.

"Wait," He watched her. "How about we call it a night and get some dinner?"

Surprised, Emily nodded, "Yeah, I like that, I'll shut down my computer, and get my things."

He nodded, "I'll be down in a bit."

She stopped before stepping out, "And you can tell me all about your Academy days." She reminded him.

He looked up, "Yes, training days, and moxie juice."

She gave him a stunned look before they exchanged smiles.

Emily left his office shaking her head, chuckling.

Hotch watched her as she descended the steps and headed to her work desk, he continued to smile before he remembered that he had to power down his laptop and put away his files in his brief case.

Dinner, for the first time in a long while, actually sounded wonderful, especially with a friend.

…...

The End

. moxie - slang for courage, sass, spunk, determination.