This is my first time writing Criminal Minds fan fiction I have only ever done Walking Dead fics before. This idea has been swirling around in my head for a while. This is just a snippet and there's much more backstory and chapters that will pull this whole thing into a complete story. I wanted to start writing it down to put it into words and not just images and feelings in my head anymore. This one is very personal to me and I have used these characters to express ambitions, fears, turmoil, and other feelings I've had in my mind for a while.
The main female character I created to put in the criminal minds universe was a recent FBI graduate who excelled in areas of combat and intellect, almost improbably so. She reads people exceptionally well but had difficulty building relationships and expressing her own feelings. She worked out of the Philadelphia field office and had become obsessed with tracking down the whereabouts of a elusive human trafficking operation, which was far outside of her pay grade. This of course was her undoing because she was taken by the trafficking organization and held captive for close to 6 months. The details of this will come out as I go but she survived for this amount of time because of a talent the traffickers capitalized on. Most of her family and co-workers assumed her as deceased due to the grim nature of her disappearance but the Philadelphia field office recently had new leads on some of the suspected traffickers. They called in the BAU for assistance and Reid was instrumental in figuring out the code she left behind and finding the location of the operation. She had already begun her escape when the BAU infiltrated the warehouse that the operation ran out of. Reid felt connected to her and that he owed her his life after she saved him from a perfectly aimed knife to the chest. The story starts prior to her assessment by the FBI to verify if she was fit to return to duty.
Reid closed the door of Jade's rustically furnished apartment behind her. She had readily relocated from the Philadelphia suburbs after her "ordeal" as her estranged cousin flippantly called it. Reid's educated assumption of the typical close knit supportive Italian American family did not apply here. In the short time he knew Jade that was the only relative he had ever even heard of. Another way she defied the stereotypical norms society would place on her.
He watched her intently as she threw her jacket on the couch disturbing the deep sleep of her oddly large cat. His first instinct was to treat her like delicate glass however she made it more than clear she did not share any type of characteristic with fragile glass works.
Reid was almost sure he was staring too long when she interrupted his gaze with what should have been a rhetorical statement.
"You know intense stares won't save me from the next criminal who happens upon me" Jade mused.
Her nonchalant attitude over what had happened to her would have been disturbing to most people but Reid knew she was far from the norm. It would have taken an army to even make her flinch and she readied sarcasm and lack of emotion as her main defenses. Beyond that however she was exceptionally hard to profile. She rarely revealed any weakness and didn't exhibit the tell tale signs of someone who had recently undergone an intense trauma. She was remarkably composed and mostly returned to the normalcy of civilized life with apparent ease.
"Of course not, that would be highly ineffective. Historically men often locked their women away to keep prying hands off of them." He immediately regretted saying that and silently scolding himself for missing another social cue.
Jade smiled at him and remained unphased by his ineptitude in that moment. Her lack of revulsion by his incessant fact regurgitation gave him a feeling he wasn't quite sure how to identify yet.
She continued aimlessly walking around her apartment with no clear destination, letting her hands graze each piece of furniture like it would change into something else if she didn't. Reid couldn't figure out why he was often mesmerized by even the smallest movement she made. She suddenly stopped and turned to look at him. He swore she saw right through him.
"You really don't have to do all of this you know. I will be ok... on my own." She drug out the last part of the sentence and began idly twirling her hair in her hands. A nervous habit he learned she had when faced with expressing any type of emotion. He knew she was of course referring to her deceased boyfriend who also a victim of the traffickers. Jade held his gaze still. "You really don't owe me anything but it does mean a lot that you are here."
She knew what he was going to say before he did and made him feel needed all in the same sentence. Jade was a complete anomaly to him. She was gorgeous by societal standards and had a physique even the most confident would envy. Her features were perfectly symmetrical, fitting the golden ratio to a T. Her olive skin remained flawless even with the various scars she had sustained. There were two that ran across the left side of her face and she often moved her thick brown hair in front of them in an attempt to hide herself. All of this was only superficial of course. It was her strength and the way she carried herself that drew Reid to her when he first saw her images canvassed through the Philadelphia field office. She really had no idea what she could do to a person by just looking their way.
"Well your assessment is tomorrow and I want to make sure you definitely are okay. Those are never easy. They like to throw past missteps at you and coupled with stern glances it's often unsettling." He was babbling again. Reid held his breath until he was sure he didn't offend her, which he learned too was also a difficult task. Jade took a couple steps towards him until she was at arms length away, which made him hold his breath again.
"You'll be there tomorrow right?" She asked.
This wasn't a rhetorical question he probably should answer her.
"Yes, all of the team will be there for the forum portion."
He saw her take a deep breath and steady herself. "I had to do a lot of horrible things..." Her voice trailed off and Reid stopped her before she could say anymore.
"You didn't have a choice. All of the evidence supports that." Comfort was never his strong suit. Jade didn't seem to mind. He knew she craved rationality and sugar coated anecdotes weren't often tolerated. "Hotch even volunteered to administer part of it. He comes off cold and humorless but I think you will take to him."
She smirked at him. "I should get some rest now. I'm still not use to sleeping in a bed I may just lay down in the kitchen."
"Well that doesn't seem appropriate at all, I hope you are kidding." Reid remarked.
Jade ignored his concern. "Goodnight Spencer, I'll see you in the morning." She seemed to hesitate but then closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you again." She whispered into his ear.
Reid savored this moment finding himself wishing it was longer. Hugging anyone seemed out of character for her so he didn't know if he would get to experience it again. His mind was wandering and he pushed those feelings back feeling overly guilty. The girl had lost her live in boyfriend to a horrific act and he was fantasizing about hugging her again.
He pulled himself together and walked to the door. He felt her looking at him still and turned to look her direction before he left. "If you need anything you know where to find me. Goodnight Jade." He reluctantly opened her door and exited her apartment. Reid lingered in the hallway for a minute realizing he had no idea where he parked his car. He had an IQ of 187 but couldn't even retrace his steps back to the parking lot. He calculated there were 4 different entrances to the building so at least two would have to be within a reasonable proximity to the parking lot. That still didn't really help him much. He admitted defeat and started walking down the hallway swearing he could hear muffled crying behind him.
Jade watched as two stodgy looking old men whispered to each other over documents and photographs throwing her judging glances at randomly timed intervals. Next to them sat a meticulously groomed woman with an almost bored look on her face. Jade assumed she went home to her immaculate house and emasculated her husband over a nightly meal of steamed vegetables and burned salmon. The marriage counseling bill alone must have been enough of a financial burden to fire the cook. Her hair twirling commenced. She knew it was an awful habit but the thought of these three deciding the fate of her career made her blood boil. Spencer was right. They had barely spoken and already she felt as if she needed to be on the defense.
Jade turned her head to the back of the room and instantly relaxed when she saw Spencer sitting there with the rest of his team. She met his eyes and he gave a knowing glance letting her know she would be fine.
Comb Over spoke up first and assaulted her immediately with questions of what had transpired during her months in captivity. He knew all of the details of this of course but apparently a good rehash was in order.
"As I understand you were a prisoner of the Brown's for over 5 months" Comb Over inquired.
"5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, and 5 hours to be correct." Jade retorted.
He gave her the look of a disapproving teacher catching a high school student smoking a cigarette in the parking lot. Jade could tell she was making friends already.
Comb Over resumed his pointless retelling. "Your superiors at the Philadelphia office think highly of you." The mention of her former unit head left a lump in her throat. They had given up on looking for her after 2 months citing "misuse of resources." Though she understood the politics behind it still hurt hearing people she also thought of as friends did nothing more for her. "You were one of the youngest but the most skilled they had seen in a long time. Your intellect was highly coveted and your combat knowledge put you into the field well ahead of your class. The Philadelphia office also used criminal profiling tools which you put to full use. It sounds like you could read people exceptionally well but often failed to relate to your fellow agents."
I didn't often have the energy for socializing. "I don't see how my likability has any bearing on my abilities as an agent."
Comb Over cleared his throat and continued. The other two next to him appeared to only be there for intimidation purposes. "You are not wrong in that statement. I read agent Hotchner's assessment of you and am having a hard time believing his conclusion. You show zero signs of post traumatic stress. You were at times tortured, forced to kill, and I see here lost your boyfriend in the process. I will not ask you those details again but even the most highly trained would not have come out of that as... stable as you appear to be."
Jade's hand began to shake. Hearing of Ian still felt like an knife to the heart and forcibly took the air out of her lungs. She wasn't sure if she deserved to be alive now, the guilt she felt over his death was impossible to cope with so she chose to ignore it. She needed to be able to get back to her career in whatever capacity that may be now. The distraction was crucial. She turned for comfort in the back of the room again. Agent Hotchner appeared more perturbed than she was or that may just be his normal look she wasn't yet sure. Spencer noticed her discomfort and seemed to be feeling the same thing she was. He wretched uncomfortably in seat impatiently waiting for Comb over to finish his long winded thought.
The firing squad began to cease. Comb over droned on. "Agent Hotchner is well respected in his field. If he believes you are fit to return and whatever transgressions you were forced to commit were to keep you alive I am in no place to argue. However I do urge you lower to your defenses and do your best to relate to your new team."
Ok now he had her attention.
"You have been officially transferred to Quantico and will serve in a probationary period as part of the behavioral analysis unit. Both SA David Rossi and Dr. Spencer Reid vouched for your skills and against my better judgment I reinstated you per their recommendations. However any small infraction could result in your demotion."
Jade sighed in relief and felt her defenses crumbling. She has moved to DC knowing it may be her only chance to stay in the bureau however she thought her lack of experience would reduce her to a desk job. She couldn't help but feel a hint of nervousness at the thought of joining the BAU. Though she graduated at the top of her class and quickly learned various profiling techniques she had no where near the type of expertise it took to be a profiler. Maybe Comb Over's lack of confidence in her wasn't misguided. She continued silently berating herself until Reid and the rest of the team walked over to her.
Rossi spoke first. "You held your own against them kid. Congratulations and welcome to the team." Jade didn't bond with people easily but felt comfortable with Rossi almost instantly. It may be because he reminded her of her favorite uncle who was killed in a convenience store robbery when she was a child. "Come on, we are all taking you to dinner to meet the rest of the team. Reid's treat."
Reid had a bewildered look on his face. "I don't recall agreeing to that but I don't have a good retort." He motioned as if he was going to put his arm on her back but awkwardly tried covering it up by running his hand through his hair. Jade smiled to herself watching his nervous behavior but almost wished he had followed through.