Tempest Rose: I don't own Criminal Minds or any of the characters. This is my first Criminal Minds fic so please be gentle. Constructive criticism is welcome while flames will be used for cooking burgers if I get hungry. Will and Henry do not exist in this story, you can make up your own reasons for where Will vanished. The story is set just after Paradise in season 4. Now that that's out of the way, on with the story!
Reid was grumbling under his breath as he trudged up the stairs and into the conference room. At least he wasn't the only one who didn't seem happy. Behind him, Morgan was griping about how his evening had been ruined yet again by a case, while Emily and JJ shared a commiserating glance behind the bald man's back. Even the normally perky Penelope Garcia had a scowl on her face, very upset that her date with Kevin had been ruined. As the disgruntled agents sulked into the room, they each took a second to glare at the three men standing in front of the screen on the wall. Reid had made a beeline for the coffee maker and was just sitting down when his brain decided to kick itself into gear. 'Three people? What? Ok, I see Hotch. Rossi is next to him, and the third is-' "Gideon? The hell are you doing here?"
Six pairs of eyes turned to the resident genius as the aforementioned man dropped his gaze. Gideon should have expected such a reaction from his former protégé. Flicking his gaze to the young man, he grinned slightly at the sight of the doctor attempting to hide behind his cup of sugar with a splash of coffee.
"I'm here to help out on a case. We have a serial sadist in Long Beach."
JJ leaned forward in her seat, her blue eyes looking rather perplexed. "Why haven't I heard about this? No offence Hotch, but normally I'm the one presenting cases."
The ever-stoic unit chief gave the media liaison a half-hearted shrug. "I got this first because we need to send some agents in undercover." Turning his back to his team Aaron Hotchner grimaced as he explained the next part. "Two of you will be posing as students at Wilson Classical High School. All nine victims were students there, and so far it's our only connection."
Hotch turned back to the agents seated at the round table expecting to hear protests. Instead he saw that JJ had put her head on the table in defeat, and Reid was giving Gideon a glare that could kill a small animal. Setting down the mug in his hand, the young profiler pointed a single bony finger at his former mentor. "If you even start to mention Parker Dunley as justification for why I'm going to be a high school student again, I will PERSONALLY hack the security footage of your conversation with that artist friend of Lila's. And there is audio on that recording Gideon."
The retired profiler paled slightly, trying to come up with an appropriate retort. Thankfully, Derek Morgan spared him the trouble of defusing the young genius. "Damn Pretty Boy, what's gotten into you? I've never seen you get this mad at anyone, let alone Gideon."
With a glare pointed briefly at his fellow profiler, Reid all but growled his response. "I'm under caffeinated and over tired. Besides, I am well aware of how young I look. It's pretty obvious that I'm going to be one of the students; I just need to adjust my wardrobe to get more appropriate clothes. So am I going to be making up stories to explain absentee parents or what?"
JJ perked up just a bit in response to Reid's question. She had no doubt about being the other undercover student on this; after all, she got carded any time she went to a bar. The blonde was not looking forward to having to act like a teenager, but she had a job to do and she would do it. 'Besides,' JJ reasoned mentally, 'maybe this will be just the chance I need to get Spence to see me as more than a friend. All those high school girls will be fawning all over him, and he'll need a way to make them stop. How better to do that than to have a girlfriend already?'
Little did JJ know that a rather conniving smirk had begun to play across her face. In fact, she was only snapped out of her internal musings when Garcia asked her a question. "JJ honey, why are you looking like the cat who seduced the canary?" JJ's cheeks turned a rather fetching hue of scarlet as her eyes dropped to the table. Just on the edge of the media liaison's field of vision, Reid was staring at her with a cocked eyebrow as her nursed his second- or was it third- cup of liquid energy.
Thankfully, David Rossi spared JJ any further embarrassment by finally answering Reid's question. "Jason and I will be joining you two in the field. The story is that the two of you are best friends from Vegas; Jennifer will be my niece who has recently been orphaned, while Spencer is the son of the school's new psychology teacher Jason Gideon. Jen and I will be moving to Long Beach under the guise that I was already planning on moving and let my distraught niece choose where home would be."
With his typical playboy smirk firmly in place, Derek Morgan leaned back in his chair as he addressed the older man. "So you're gonna be the laid-back uncle I take it? Guess we know where the parties will be at then." Even the stone-faced Aaron Hotchner seemed to be amused by such a prospect. Throughout the whole of the meeting thus far, Emily Prentiss had been as silent as a monk. She was damn glad that she didn't have to be a part of the undercover team for such a case. Emily was very excited at the prospect of taking her two friends shopping for teen clothes though. However, she realized something very important. "Here's a thought for you; if Reid and JJ are supposed to be from Vegas, wouldn't it make sense to get their new wardrobes in Vegas? That way they'll have things from Vegas that are authentic and not labeled that way just for show."
Tilting his head to the side ever so slightly, Gideon rubbed his hands together in that oh-so-typical fashion of his as he considered the brunette's words. Admittedly, she had a point; and it would be much more convincing if the four of them could really make it look like they were moving in to Long Beach from Vegas. Looking to Hotch for approval, Gideon waited patiently for the unit chief to make the decision. Needless to say, he was quite surprised at the slight hint of mischief and mirth in the younger man's eyes.
"Don't worry Emily, that was already the plan. We have six weeks until school starts, and since our unsub only takes his victims while school is in session we'll have some time. We'll have two weeks in Las Vegas to prepare for this case. Reid, since we don't know how long you'll be undercover, you are more than welcome to visit your mother while we're there. You and JJ should pack only enough for a day or two since you'll be replacing everything. If you have anything else you want to bring for personal reasons, just make sure it can't blow your cover. Garcia, you'll be joining us in Vegas for two weeks to do final details on backgrounds. Wheels up in one hour everyone."
And with that statement, the agents went their own ways in preparation of the coming trip.