Criminal Minds
Season VII, Episode I – It Takes a Village
Chapter I – Washington, D.C. – September, 2011
The debate had lasted for hours. Adrenalized by the crisis atmosphere in the room, and, indeed, all over Capitol Hill, senator after senator approached the goose-necked microphone to denounce in thrilling varieties of fiery language the issues each of them had with the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit following a disastrous few months in that branch of the Bureau of Investigation.
As Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer Jareau sat in the hallway outside the room in which the Senate Standing Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs was convening, she found herself reflecting on the events of the past four months. This should have been a great time in her life. She had a wonderful man in her life and a beautiful three-year-old son. She had returned to the job she loved, the function she wanted to perform in life. That was nothing short of miraculous itself. More than that, she had returned to her friends – her family. She knew things would be different, given what she knew about Emily Prentiss' 'death', but still, she could not understand how things got so bad so suddenly.
Inside the conference room, as the debate was concluding, the senators on the committee were looking to direct their anger and hard line of questioning at the people responsible for this mess in which they found themselves.
"The Standing Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will now begin the process of questioning." The committee chairman, Senator John Van Dyke (R – Nevada), a man whose intimidating physical stature was matched only by his intellect, stated. "The Chair calls to the stand Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer Jareau, Interim Chief of the Behavioural Analysis Unit."
Out in the hallway, as JJ sat uncomfortably in the utiliatarian chairs outside the conference room, a security guard opened the door to the committee, ushering JJ inside. After sitting down, being sworn in, and various other formalities were undertaken, the questioning began.
"There's not really a good place to begin here, but let's get the ball rolling. Tell us about your return to the BAU." Senator Van Dyke said in the grandfatherly tone he used to disabuse people of the notion he was a monster.
"Well, as you know, Mr. Chairman, I had been transferred to the State Department. However, SSA David Rossi suggested in May that it would be more expensive to keep Agent Ashley Seaver on with the team, being a junior agent who needs extra training. That, in the interest of cutting costs, it made more sense for me to return. My transfer request was approved by the State Department and I returned to the BAU in the first week of June."
"What happened with Agent Seaver?" chimed in Senator David Adler (D – Connecticut), who, because of his age and dashing appearance was widely referred to as the Paul Newman of Capitol Hill.
"After careful consideration on the part of Agent Aaron Hotchner, who was and still is acting as the Section Chief in Agent Erin Strauss' absence, Agent Seaver was transferred to the New York Field Office, where they had both the time and money to spend on giving her the training she needs."
"Clear up something, Agent," demanded Senator Casey Elliott (D – Oregon), who, at the age of thirty-four, and with two years' experience in the Upper House, had already gained a reputation as a pit-bull on every committee on which he'd served. "Dave Rossi doesn't have the authorization to bring in people and transfer others, does he?"
"Well," JJ explained, pausing momentarily to cough, partly because there was something in her throat, and partly because of how intimidating Casey Elliott is to deal with, "Agent Hotchner, who was at the time serving as both the Unit Chief for the BAU and the Section Chief, designated some of his tasks to others in the Unit, to ease his burden."
"When did it become evident that Agent Morgan was conducting an unauthorized, independent investigation into the terrorist Ian Doyle?" Inquired Senator Van Dyke.
Watching all of this hearing play out on television, Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, still confined to a hospital bed, didn't listen to Agent Jareau's response to that last question, but he didn't need to. He knew as well as anybody what the answer would be. Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia discovered that SSA Morgan had re-opened the case file into SSA Emily Prentiss' death and she brought that to Agent Hotchner's attention.
Agent Hotchner knew he shouldn't worry. He knew he couldn't – not yet, anyway. But he couldn't help himself. His beloved team was in shambles and he couldn't do a damn thing about it. All he could do was watch this insanity play out on television and wait for the nurse to give him his next sponge-bath. Haley's sister would be bringing Jack to the hospital this afternoon. That would break up the monotony. Hotch hadn't wanted his son to see him right after it happened. He looked so frail and he knew how impressionable young people are. It would be good to see Jack.
Right now, Agent Hotchner had to do something else. He had to go to the rest-room and this time he was determined to do it by himself. To hell with the nurse. He sat up for the first time that day. He looked around and just wished he could be free of this hellish situation. He wished there was something he could have done to prevent his being here in the first place. Deep down he knew there wasn't. It wasn't his fault he had a congenitally weak heart. How had this not showed up on the myriad of medical tests he underwent prior to joining the bureau, he thought. Well, it didn't matter now. All that mattered now was standing up and making the short trip over to the rest-room as painlessly as possible.
Evidently, it wasn't possible. As soon as he stood up, he could feel his heart giving out on him again. It was the same feeling he'd had on that fateful morning twelve weeks prior when he informed his friend and colleague Derek Morgan of his immediate suspension.
Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan, sitting in his apartment, also watching the hearings on television, was more invested in them than Aaron Hotchner was. Morgan's career was on the line. Depending on Agent Jareau's answers, he might never be allowed to work in the FBI again. In his heart of hearts he understood completely that what he did was wrong, unethical, a complete breach of protocol, and illegal. He knew that. But he felt that what Agents Hotchner and Jareau did was, although perhaps legal, a complete breach of trust and friendship.
He thought he knew the two of them. He couldn't claim to know anything anymore. Not after the summer he put in, the discoveries he made. And that was what so steamed him about the actions of his 'friends'. Friends don't tell each other one of their other friends is dead when she actually isn't. As he watched the continuous coverage on C-SPAN, Derek Morgan was going through a lot of emotions, but happiness wasn't one of them.
At his remote cabin on Lake Pleasant, Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi didn't get TV reception, nor did he need to. He went here to get away from things and to focus on his writing. However, on this particular autumn morning, the last thing Dave Rossi was focused on was his writing. He kept blaming himself for the way this whole mess happened.
While there was plenty of blame to go around here, perhaps Dave Rossi was something of a catalyst. If he hadn't offered JJ the option of coming back to the BAU, then Morgan wouldn't have overheard the conversation between Hotchner and JJ that led him to believe that Prentiss wasn't dead. If Morgan hadn't overheard that conversation then he wouldn't have gone on a wild – and unauthorized – goose chase to capture Ian Doyle and locate Prentiss. And if Morgan hadn't gone off on that investigation that was so terribly mishandled by Interpol, then the BAU wouldn't be in this mess and Aaron Hotchner might not have had a heart attack.
Rossi was upset that JJ and Hotch kept that secret from everyone else – especially after those god-awful grief assessments – but he was more understanding than Morgan, probably because he was less directly affected by this whole mess. He wasn't suspended and he still had a job in the FBI.
SSA David Rossi needed to clear his head, so he took his dog, Mudgie, and headed out on the lake to do some fishing. With the deadline looming for his latest book, maybe the opportunity to clear his thoughts would give him some inspiration. Maybe.
Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia had been so hurt when she found out that JJ and Hotch – JJ especially – lied to them about faking Prentiss' death, it almost prevented her from showing the joy she felt when she found out Emily wasn't, in fact, dead.
Today, the day on which JJ was testifying before the Senate about how things went so wrong in Morgan's investigation, Garcia found herself in her den at work, the only team member of the BAU who had to come in to work today. She was watching JJ testify on television and couldn't help but weep. She was crying in part due to feeling sorry for the stress JJ was going through and in part because of how upsetting it was to her that her closest friend couldn't tell her that her other closest friend wasn't dead as she had thought. Garcia was, to say the least, conflicted.
Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid sat glued to the television in his utilitarian apartment outside Quantico, VA, mesmerized by these proceedings in the Senate. Of all the members of the BAU, Reid was, at the present time, the most emotionally detached. It's not that he didn't care for the people involved in this mess, or care about the problem itself. It's just that Reid, with an IQ that rivals Albert Einstein's, has a way of dealing with situations like this in a way that people with average IQs don't.
When Reid first found out that JJ and Hotch had lied to the rest of the team regarding Prentiss' demise, he was certainly hurt, but he didn't deal with his emotions by crying, putting his fist through a wall, or other reactions typical to finding out you've been deceived. Reid, who was so terribly upset when he first found out that Prentiss had died, was so unnerved and unsettled coming to the realization that when JJ held him in her arms as he wept all those months ago knew then that she was telling her friend and colleague a bald-faced lie. For someone with this level of intelligence, Spencer Reid rarely found himself unable to speak or think, but that is the condition in which he found himself today.
Back the FBI Headquarters in Quantico, VA, as the coffee machine burped up its' last bit of brew, Section Chief Erin Strauss, having recently returned to work after a battle with cancer, was formulating ways to bring the much-storied Behavioural Analysis Unit back from over the brink.
More to Come. . .