Disclaimer;; I don't own Criminal Minds. I sure wish I did though.

This is going to be Reid/OC fanfic, despite what it looks like at first glance. It'll gradually develop. There will be moments of friendship and romance, but like I've said, gradually.

I've always imagined Reid with a woman that was somewhat his opposite. Confident, bold, charming, clairvoyant, but cold at times. Somewhat like a possible unsub. People would be her weed in a way. She's the type of person who seems to have done everything, and know everyone. Juliet's was inspired by a mix of traits my friends and I have.

The glassy gaze has a reason behind it. Everything has a reason behind it, so just wait and see.

This is my first fanfiction ever, so rate and review! I hope you guys enjoy the story. I know the story doesn't seem like a Reid pairing at the moment, but I need to introduce her at the team, right?

Chapter One;;

Filling in an empty slot

"We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a work has been spoken."

– Fydor Dostoevsky

A young woman in her late twenties tapped her foot inside the elevator. Her complexion was light skinned; Hispanic, with green brown eyes and lazy curly brown hair. She was dressed in a crisp green shirt and brown slacks. She kept shuffling a pile of manila envelopes. Her visitor pass said her name was Juliet Medina, newly fledged agent. Her face showed no feelings, yet in her mind, she was bursting with anger. This. Is. Hell. I never wanted to be in the stupid FBI, yet here I am! If it wasn't for that bitch who threatened me with those stalker cases, - which by the way, were 3 years old! - I should be in Paris by now. No, I would be in Paris by now.

The ring of the elevator alerted her she had arrived at her designated floor. Juliet looked up with an annoyed expression, stepping out smartly. She knew this would be her new job, and she had to take it with grace if she wanted food on her plate and a roof over her head. However, she still couldn't help but be annoyed with the whole situation.

Her voice carried to 3 individuals not so far off, as she talked to who seemed to herself. She paused a moment, standing outside the elevator with an irritable expression, tapping her foot the way a woman did when she was seriously pissed and needed to be somewhere.

"Andrew, I told you, no. I was forced to quit 4 years ago. I only send you those spare articles because I needed the money." Manila envelopes cradled in her left arm, she kept jabbering her mouth silly. From far off, it seemed like she was talking to herself, until a turn of the head revealed a Bluetooth on her right ear.

Not so far off, someone by the name of Derek Morgan turned around, barely hearing a voice speaking quickly and proficiently. "Well well, who do we have here?" he said coolly, leaning on his desk and looking at the female standing outside the elevator.

Emily Prentiss turned her head, swiveling in her chair and smirking slightly. "Don't get too excited. She's probably here on business."

Reid lifted his head, peering cautiously at the girl by the elevator. ."What type of business?" he asked warily. The team knew he didn't like strangers, even ones who walked past by for the briefest of moments.

"Press, by the sound of her arguing with whoever she's talking to." Prentiss mused. "Probably here to ask for the umpteenth time if Rossi's really retiring."

The sound of the woman's voice once more drifted over to them. "No, Andrew. Noooooo. Do I have to spell out the word for you? N – O. No. Meaning I will not do anything you ask me." A few moments later, the team noticed her face to scrunch up in distaste. "Are you seriously that desperate? It's a good sum of money, but I. Can't. Take. It. " she spoke urgently. Her eyes soon widened in surprise mixed with disgust. "Ew, no. I'm not risking another law trial. I said no, anyways." The BAU team couldn't help but laugh silently, for her interesting expressions and out of place phrases were quite. . . odd at a more serious place like this.

"Bye." Juliet clicked the Bluetooth, and turned, looking straight at the BAU team. Slightly embarrassed, they turned immediately and pretended to be busy looking through old cases, summary reports, and other things that profilers did. Her gaze seemed meant to look through their soul, yet she seemed to be looking at someone's else's soul and turned around with a blank look, and trotted up the steps, not before bumping into a blond woman and reply with a stoic, "I'm sorry."

The team looked up once more. "Prentiss, I think you're right." Morgan said quietly for once.

"When am I not?" she teased in return. But it did seem odd. She was refusing to write, so it didn't quite fit the profile of a journalist.

"You guys, you do know she can always be for that. . ." Reid timidly suggested.

The team looked at each other, and replied in union. "Naw."

Penelope Garcia, walking to the trio and looking over her shoulder, gazing at the woman who was currently texting, having stopped midway up the steps. Her curiosity beat her menial anger. "Who's that?" she hissed, dropping a stack of paper's on Reid's desk unexpectedly, causing the young genius to jump and look slightly miffed. "You could at least be more careful. Sixty – five perfect of deaths are unintentional injuries."

Penelope simply ignored the obscure message, nudging Emily for more information. "Come on Em, you surly know why the chick's here."

"PG, we think she's from the press." Emily said, glancing up at the female. The visitor had slipped her phone back into her pocket, then trotted her way up the rest of the stairs. The team stared at her as she knocked on Hotchner's door, stepped in, and closed it behind her back.

"Well, that's certainly not Rossi's office." Morgan huffed, sitting down in his chair.

"Maybe she's those type of reporters that gets the dirt secretly." Penelope mused.

Emily shrugged. "I don't know. She seemed a bit mad when she was talking on the phone." Penelope just stared at Prentiss in disappointment, but then suddenly perked up. "You know, she could always be for that. . ." Garcia suggested.

"Reid already said that. But come on baby girl, we already have had 5 agents fill up the spot in the past year. Five. And they've all quit." Morgan replied.

"Two quit from the gruesome work, couldn't handle the sight, another one quit since she was scared of heights and airplanes, another one because she was inexperience and couldn't stop the press from leaking all the case information." Reid recited from memory.

Emily finished Reid's thoughts. "And the last one had to quit since her child was diagnosed with autism."

Garcia was dejected, knowing that her friends were right. Out of the team, she was the one most open-minded about accepting a new agent to fill up the empty spot. The team? Not so much. "Well, don't you think Hotch is being a bit too rough. . . ?"

Prentiss sighed. Her friend was just too hopeful. "Seriously Garcia, you know that's true. Maybe Hotch is being a bit too rough, but the agents weren't up to fill it." Penelope pouted at her last hope of having a new face to see.

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see." Morgan sighed, shuffling envelopes absentmindedly to kill the time.

Juliet presented the envelope to the head of the BAU team with a business - like look. "Agent , transferred here by Chief Strauss." Hotchner looked warily at the new agent. She seemed like the person Strauss would pick. Determined, businesslike, and confident, with that air to dominate. A alpha female, just like Strauss. Unconsciously, he started to profile her, and he could tell by her body motions she didn't want to be here. However, a little part of Hotch told him that it seemed she couldn't do anything about it.

He returned his gaze to the manila folder that was offered to her. He already knew what was in there. Paperwork to confirm her transfer, her record and personal information, past jobs and what – not. He laid it atop the desk, feeling the feeling of remorse of filling JJ's spot. But he had to. He and Garcia could handle the task, but these were orders from above. Chief Strauss had contacted him earlier that week, telling him this would be good. He wasn't convinced, but well, he couldn't do anything about it. He hated that the agents were never permanent; it shook the stability of his team and cases. He hoped, for the sake of the team, this would be different, despite his feelings that he didn't want a replacement.

Hotchner opened the manila folder, skimming over the content. Juliet Media, previous journalist/reporter, age 29, single, only child, Colombian descent. Lived in a small city below Sacramento named Stockton (he distantly remembered having a case there. A couple killed because of a delusional homeless man) moved to Las Vegas at the age of 13, moved back home at the age of 16 where she graduated high school, started writing for minor newspapers fresh out of school, attended UCLA starting at age 17, spoke French, Tagalog, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin Chinese, has a BA in Journalism and an AA in Communications. Basically, another smart, informative, above average intelligence, alpha female that were scattered around in the FBI. Glancing up at Juliet, it did remote remind him of Emily when they first met. Except this one was more. . . cold, and expecting an order. It reminded him of an unsub with no empathy. He banished the thought from his head at once. She somewhat also reminded him of a woman version of Morgan. She seemed quite fit to be kicking down doors, and was pretty enough to attract a few men once in a while. He'd just have to wait and see if she had the same manners as Morgan.

Hotch invited her to sit down, then explained the duties of the BAU and her own duties as Communication Liasion. Juliet listened quite intently as Hotch explained their schedule and how to brief the team, as he would show her in a few minutes. As she understood every order and moved with confidence, it seemed more possible she would be a permanent stay. She had once been part of the media, so he was positive that she knew their every trick and ways; she probably used them herself.

Hotch stood up, seeing that the clock declared it was 9:50 AM. He stood up, and beckoned Juliet to do the same. "Let me introduce you to the team."

Hotchner led Medina to the conference room. The team had already settled there, waiting for their unit chief. Morgan was there, criticizing Emily's latest love affairs alongside with his 'baby girl', while the young genius Spencer Reid was sitting with his hot cup of coffee, solving a extremely hard Sudoku puzzle he was about to finish in 3 minutes. Instead of the lazy grin's that Agent Hotchner received upon arrival, now was simply a look of surprise. Garcia had an expression of immense glee and pleasure; Morgan one of doubt and surprise; Emily and Reid with the ultimate look of being flabbergasted.

Hotch coughed in warning, subtly telling the agents to keep their composure, as they immediately did. "Team, this is Agent Juliet Medina, our new Communication and Media Liaison. Agent."

Juliet grinned with no specific emotion, and waved her hand in simple greeting. Hotch spoke once more. "Agent, this is Agent Derek Morgan." Juliet discovered it was the hot guy of the lot; one that should be in magazines. "Agent Emily Prentiss," was the woman in her 40's that had a warm smile and a friendly greeting, "Technology Analyst Penelope Garcia" seemed very friendly and too happy, which earned her a genuine smile from Juliet, slightly amused. And there, then was the SSA Spencer Reid. He was cute in a dorky-nerdy-geeky sort of way, like someone who belonged in a boy band. However, it wasn't that that had caught her eye. He timidly shook her hand while she gave him a smile, which made him seemed a bit uncomfortable. He seemed so familiar! Probably from one of those old articles. She had some run – ins with the BAU before, always trying to snoop around when she had moved on with criminal reports, so Juliet figured it was from one of those.

Reid, however, knew who she was. His spirit dropped as he remembered that magazine article from long, long ago, with one certain young actress Lila Archer. He was so sure of it, that it was her name imprinted in tiny font at the beginning of the article than Morgan had fondly teased him about. That same magazine was buried under piles of work for years, but he was sure it was her name, making him uncomfortable. She knew! Maybe she even stalked him once for that. It darkly pleased him a little, finding himself valuable enough to be stalked, but it probably wasn't true. It was only that photographer they had found in the hedges.

However, despite having somehow personally snapped a few pictures of him and Lila saying goodbye, her face was also distinctly familiar. Those eyes. . . he had seen them somewhere before. But where? He had an eidetic memory, so he knew he would know eventually.

Hotch cleared his throat, inviting Juliet to sit down alongside Emily and Morgan. "There are a series of killings in Evengreen, Colorado. 3 housewives, with 2 children. The housewives are Caucasian, living in the suburbs. The tying link between the families is the suburb area. The fathers work in the justice system, and the children attend private school. The bodies were all disposed in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The victims were beat and poisoned to death, and there is an evident sign of a struggle."

"Pretty picky victimolodgy. Middle class family, law abiding citizens, two children, husbands in justice system."

"He's probably a local too. The foothills of the Rocky Mountain are immense." Prentiss added.

"Immense is a nice way to put it. All the forests look so alike to one another you don't know if you're going north or south without someone who knows the place." Juliet spoke, a glassy, blank look in her eyes as she looked at the victims on the screen. "So terrible too, being close to Christmas."

The team glanced at the agent. It seemed like she had been there before. Looking through the iPad before her, she seemed to read the vibes from the team. "Was somewhere at the foothills once. Safety precautions for when you're in a mountain range or such." Juliet did any writing she was offered. Or well, she used to.

Hotchner nodded. "Wheels up in an hour. Agent Medina, go home and pack a go - bag. Meet us at the jet.

Juliet nodded, snatching her phone up from the table and headed out.