This starts after the episode Alchemy and continues on through the series. This is my first real Criminal Minds fic and I probably won't update too often, but I hope you stick with me. Please review if you have any ideas or questions since I don't have too much planned out other than this being a fic of Reid finally getting some happiness in his life.
Oh my dear eagle,
Like a lightning bolt
You struck this
Sweet peacock
"Excuse me," a tall woman said as she strode into the bullpen of the local FBI station. She had a slip of paper in her pale hand that had told her to come to this police station to help with some kind of case. She was confused as to why she was called to help the police when she was only a child psychologist. An officer stopped to help the confused woman and directed her towards the back of the station. The thick black heels of her thigh high boots thumped against the tile floor as she crossed the bullpen to the small room. She pulled her thick brown hair behind her ear as she peaked her head into the room to see a tearful blonde woman and a tall black haired man.
"Ah, um," she nervously said, glancing down at the slip of paper before she stepped into the room. "Is there an Aaron Hotchner here?"
"That would be me," the tall man said, turning his stern gaze on her. "Who might you be?"
"Dr. Eglantine Schaffer," the woman introduced with a small smile as she shook back her long sleeve so she could shake his hand. "There was a call to my office that you needed my help?"
"That's right," Aaron nodded as he motioned to a seat at the table. Eglantine slowly sat and nervously crossed her legs and fidgeted with her skirt. She had never been good with authority, respected authority, but never good with them. "It had come to our understanding that you have been recently opened up a clinic for abused children in the area."
"Yessir," Eglantine nodded, her Southern accident slipping out due to her nervousness. She had recently moved up north after her thirtieth birthday so she could finally pursue her dream of having a youth home. It was still new and she was still trying to make connections with the schools, so it was strange that the FBI already knew about it. "The Flower Garden is mine. How can I help you sir?"
Hotch looked over at the blonde woman for a moment before he looked at Eglantine again.
"We have an understanding that you have a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology," he said to her slowly, making her nod in confirmation. She was highly confused as to why he had taken such an interest in her, but tried to smile and think nothing of it. "We have someone we want you to take a look at."
Eglantine frowned for a moment before she smiled brightly. She really was happy to be helping a child and, if the FBI is involved, the child must have some trouble that she definitely wanted to get rid of.
"I'll take a look at them. Where is the little Sweet Pea?" Eglantine said as she stood happily from the chair, adjusting her low cut dress so it was a bit more child appropriate. Hotch looked at the blonde woman with an amused look before he turned to guide Eglantine from the room. She looked around curiously as he led her down the hall to a room right off the hall.
"This her?" a muscular, dark colored man asked when they entered the room. Eglantine looked around in wonder at how many computers filled the room. Sitting closest to the computers was a large set blonde woman with the dark man next to her. In a seat in the middle of the room was a lanky, light brown haired man that looked tired beyond belief. An older man and an older woman stepped away from the wall at the sight of Hotch, the blonde woman, and Eglantine walking into the room. Eglantine kept looking around in confusion, wondering where the child could be.
"Where is the little Sweet Pea?" she asked, turning back to Hotch for an answer. The dark man almost burst into laughter at her words, making her turn to him in confusion.
"I'm telling you guys, I don't need to talk to anyone," the youngest man said from his chair in the middle of the room. "I'm fine now that I have sleep."
"You're the one I'm here to talk to?" Eglantine said in confusion, frowning as she turned to the young man. She looked up at Hotchner with a sad smile. "I'm sorry sir, but I'm a developmental psychologist."
"Which means?" the dark man asked, raising a black eyebrow at her.
"I work with kids and treating mental diseases in kids," Eglantine explained slowly, looking up at Hotch with a somewhat pained expression. "I know little more about the adult brain than a general psychology student other than what an adult brain can look like after childhood problems."
"So you can't help Pretty Boy here?" the dark man asked, narrowing his eyes at her. Eglantine shook her head and sighed softly.
"I-I can try," Eglantine said, hating to leave someone unhelped when she could try. "What exactly is wrong?"
"This is Dr. Spencer Reid," the older man introduced, receiving Eglantine's slow and confused nod. "He has an eidetic memory and it is caus-"
"Excuse me," Eglantine interrupted, biting her lip nervously as her brain raced for it to go into psychologist mode instead of her normal caregiver mode. "I know you are trying to help, but you called me here to talk to a patient, so I would like to hear straight from the patient."
"Thank you," Reid sighed, having gotten a bit frustrated by his friends' attempts to talk to her as if something is wrong with him. He felt perfectly fine and was believing that he was beginning to find closure in his dreams about Maeve, so he didn't see why they called in a psychologist. He looked up at the tall, yet somehow tiny woman before him with a frown. "There is nothing wrong with me."
"Your friends seem to have a genuine concern for you though," Eglantine said softly, nearing him with a gentle smile as she decided to treat him just like any of the teenagers she's helped. She paused before she turned to the other FBI agents in the room. "Speaking of. It is common practice for me to speak alone with patients over the age of thirteen, so would you please allow me to talk to Dr. Reid alone?"
"Are you sure we can't be here?" the dark man questioned, shooting a concerned look towards the younger man.
"Yessir," Eglantine nodded, gaining confidence among the impressive agents now that she actually had knowledge about what they were talking about. "Patients tend to lie when they know their family and friends are watching or listening in on them."
"Ok," the dark man said slowly as the agents began to slowly leave the room so the two could be alone. Once the door closed behind them, Eglantine turned back to her patient and smiled brightly.
"Let's just chat a bit and get to know each other," she said as she rolled up one of the other chairs in the room so she could sit across from him.
"How are they?" Hotch asked as he strode up to Morgan and Garcia a few hours after they were told to leave their resident genius alone with the young psychologist. Morgan sighed as he stood straight from his position against the wall, a position he had been maintaining for the last two hours even after the rest of the team had gone back to their offices and desks to continue the day's work.
"Not a peep has been heard from either of them," Morgan said worriedly, glancing at Garcia's door as if he expected the two to walk out right then.
"That's not good," Hotch murmured, his eyes narrowing slightly as he also looked to the door that Garcia was pacing nervously in front of. The plump woman clearly wanted to get back to her computers even though she had promised to be the one to give up her office when the team had been discussing how they planned on making Reid talk to a professional about his problems.
"What's up?" Derek asked, knowing the tone his leader used only occurred when something bad has happened.
"Do you know the date?" Hotch said meaningfully, causing Derek to think for a moment before he realized what his boss meant.
"That nanny kidnapper," Morgan breathed in realization, doing quick math to realize that they only had a few days before the anniversary that Unsub held so dear. Morgan glanced back at Garcia's door worriedly. "Do we bring the kid with us?"
"He's the only one who doesn't have to look at files to remember everything about each of the prior victims," Hotch murmured logically, though his tone clearly showed that he did not, in fact, want to bring Reid along with them. Hotch squared his shoulders and stepped around Garcia to her door, knocking quietly on it to warn the occupants that he was coming in just in case they didn't want anything they were saying heard. He opened the door to see the two staring up at him with blank faces. Hotch was taken aback for a moment at their stoic expressions, but covered it quickly with his own stoic look. "We have a case, Reid. Wheels up in thirty."
Reid practically jumped out of his chair at his boss' words, clearly happy for a chance to escape talking to his new psychologist.
"How is he?" Hotch asked once Reid was a safe distance away and Derek and Garcia had come into the room. Eglantine sighed as she stood and shook her head slightly.
"I can see what you mean by troubled, but I couldn't get a peep out of him that wasn't some sort of fact or statistic about psychology," she murmured, rubbing her eyes tiredly from under her glasses. "Talking to patients and gaining their trust is a long process, especially if they don't want to open up to you."
She sighed again and looked up at Hotch with a sad expression. "But I have never seen anyone close up so much into themselves like he has."
"Does that mean you are unable to help us?" Hotchner asked quickly, narrowing his eyes down at her. From what he had read of her file that Garcia had dug up for him, she had a near perfect track record of getting people to open up about their problems and had great reviews from the teens and children that have come under her care. To his surprise, Eglantine smiled brilliantly up at him.
"Of course not. I'll help Dr. Reid in good time, I just have to take more time with him than I normally need to," Eglantine said cheerfully, giving him a warm and welcoming smile. "I have never dealt with such a hard nut to crack, but all shells crack with enough work and time."
Aaron nodded at the younger woman's words, thankful that she was not going to give up on helping Reid when he needed it.
"We will be gone for a few days on a case," Hotch told her as he headed back to his office with her following him so Garcia and Morgan could get Garcia settled into her office once more before they started work on their newest case. Eglantine looked around curiously as she followed the tall man, trying to get her barrings in the large, but cramped government building. Once they reached his office after passing by a bullpen of desks, Eglantine had to stop and marvel at all that the office held. Hotch turned to her so they could speak, but paused with a small amused look on his face at the sight of her looking around the room like a small child. He cleared his throat to draw her attention back to him so he could continue since they didn't have much time before he had to get his go bag and get to the jet. "Will you be free to come talk to Reid when we return?"
"About that," Eglantine said, pausing so she could word her request right. She wasn't quite sure how to ask for what she wanted since this was a government building and an FBI headquarters at that. She took a deep breath and decided just to be frank about it. "I would like to observe Dr. Reid while he is working. Discretely mind you, but still here so I can talk to all of you if I have questions. I still want to schedule times for me to talk to him, of course, but, since he is so held up within himself, I would like to observe him to get a bit of a feel for how he acts around others."
Eglantine trailed off worriedly, barely holding the gaze of the intimidating profiler before her as he stared down at her. If she had known him better, she would know that Hotch was just thinking of her request and all of the different things he had to come up with in order to get her access to the building. The stern look he was giving was more of a shield while he was thinking than actually aimed at her, he didn't want to scare off someone that could help a member of his team afterall. Hotch slowly nodded after a moment and turned to grab his go bag.
"I'll contact you with the day we should return and will have Garcia send you a badge so you can get in without another of that note," he said briskly as he turned to head through the door with her quickly following after him. "You can stay in my office or Dave's office since they overlook the bullpen and can't really be seen from bellow very well. I'll talk to Dave for you about being allowed into his office, so don't worry about that. You won't be allowed here when the team is on a case away from here, but you free to come whenever we are here. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask any of us for an answer."
He stopped and turned a small smile on the surprised woman. "And thank you for this, Miss Schaffer. You do not realize how much me and my team appreciate your help."
Eglantine was frozen at his sincere words, having never been that heartily thanked for her work before. He may not have been exuberant about it, but Eglantine could feel the love he felt for his team and how truly thankful he was for her to be there in his stoic words. It took her a moment to realize that Hotch had left and a few more moments to realize that she should probably leave too since the team of FBI profilers were leaving and she had left a volunteer in charge of her home for much longer than she had anticipated. Looking forward to Hotch's call, Eglantine sped home to prepare for helping her newest patient.