Author's Note: Okay, so this first chapter is actually a 2 parter. It came out far longer than I was expecting, so I chose to break it up to see if it interests anyone at all. If it does, I will continue! Just so you know, this story will be a pairing between S. Reid and an Original Character I created. There will be romance, but it will not be the entirety of this story, and I do plan for it to be long. The first chapter isn't centered around Reid or the new person, but it will become that way soon. Without further adue, onto the story!
Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own any of the characters the show created and this is based off the show. I hope I catch the characters in all of their glory. My characters and my ideas are my own, but the crimes are inspired by things I've seen on the show.
Ch. 1 - Introduction
As usual, the BAU team congregated in their headquarters Monday morning. Some arrived earlier than others, but by 9 am, everyone had reported in. The prior week had been a slow one, allowing the team to catch up on some paperwork. Even still, there was more than any of them could handle, so they were all busy filing through forms. Nothing had come in yet, surprisingly; this would occupy their time until they were given a new case to work on.
Since JJ had returned to the Pentagon once again, and Prentiss decided to leave the unit, Hotchner was looking for new recruits. His morning paperwork consisted of filing through potential new members to hire. None struck out at him, and he sighed heavily as he realized he could not easily replace those who had left, if at all. There was an ex military personnel who cleared his psychiatric evaluations and wished to continue serving, a police academy graduate looking to join the FBI, a fellow FBI agent looking for a transfer, and many other well qualified applicants. The lead agent just felt like something was missing.
Leaning back in his plush leather chair, he let the back of it rock a few times as he read through another file. This one was high on Strauss' list, which meant it was low on his. He barely looked through the woman's file before he threw it on the desk with the others. Placing his pinched fingers against his lips, he stared toward the wall of his office pensively. It was always difficult to bring new people in. Just as a headache began to pull on his head, Rossi came in to interrupt Hotchner's brooding thoughts.
"We're assembling in the conference room in ten. Garcia's found another project for us," the elder man said calmly. Hotchner gave his colleague a half-hearted cast of his eyes before they fell back to the spot on the wall he'd been surveying for the past 15 minutes. He nodded slightly to the information.
"Alright," he said dully, his mind still elsewhere, causing his voice to sound quite distant. Rossi's thick brows furrowed slightly as he stared at the team leader.
"Everything okay," Rossi articulated carefully as he assessed Hotchner's tension only as a profiler could. The tired boss finally turned away from the wall, spinning his chair slightly until he was properly facing his desk, and Rossi. He took in a quiet breath, and nodded solemnly as he let it out.
"Yeah," he began hesitantly, his voice quiet and smooth, "just reviewing new files for potential team members."
"Ah," Rossi said, with a single nod of his head in understanding. He casually took a few steps into Hotchner's office, hands tucked firmly in his suit's pockets. He shrugged a little and added, "why worry about it so hard? They gave you a week to decide, didn't they?"
Hotchner shook his head. Glancing at the files beneath his fingertips, he said, "Strauss wants my decision by tomorrow night so she can process them by Friday."
"You're kidding," Rossi stated with scrutiny, though he hardly doubted Aaron's words. Strauss always seemed to be giving them the short end of the stick, and it more than irked him she seemed to enjoy doing it. Hotchner nodded instead of shaking his head, for he knew Rossi well enough to know it was rhetorical.
"Might I give a suggestion," Rossi continued as he quickly noticed Hotchner sinking away again. When Hotch lifted his eyes to stare directly at the other man, Rossi continued, "take in someone new. We're all seasoned, and some of us are beginning to see more and more of them. Maybe, a few too many if you ask me. Some fresh blood wouldn't just be good for the unit in the long run, it could help rejuvenate those of us still left."
The two older men exchanged knowing glances, and faint smiles of understanding passed over their withered lips. Hotchner nodded slightly in thanks, and collected the files in a neat pile as Rossi left for the conference room. Whatever this case was going to give them, Hotchner would be re-reading and analyzing the files during any down time he happened to have. It was just his luck to be given a time constraint for such a decision, and land a new case all at once. Hopefully, it would be a quick one.
The team seemed a bit livelier this morning as Hotch entered the conference room, no doubt because of the calm weekend they all had been graced with. It was nice to see, but it didn't crack a smile on the man's face as he took his seat. He didn't get a chance to say anything as the brightly colored computer nerd they all loved so much came shuffling into the room, iPads in hand and smile absent as she clicked the projector on.
"Okay, so, this just came in several minutes ago," Garcia began in her peppy voice as she handed out the iPads to her team members. As usual, Reid was handed a paper folder. "Camden, New Jersey. A guy was beaten to death with a pair of pliers. He was found this morning hanging from a scaffold in a construction site. His entrails were twisted around his neck post-mortem, and a message was painted in his blood on the side of the building the scaffold laid against saying 'You're next'."
"Who found the body," Hotchner immediately asked.
"His boss, a James Miller. He's in charge of this building district, and overseeing the work of the new office building being built. He found the guy this morning at 5 am when he arrived to inspect yesterday's progress report," Garcia responded promptly, her eyes swiftly passing over the team as they looked through the gruesome photos.
"You think the message might be for him," Morgan asked.
"It's possible," Hotchner murmured, though he shook his head a bit, "we can't be sure though. It's too early to tell anything. He might just as easily be our unsub."
"Have there been any similar cases in the area," Rossi questioned next. Garcia shook her head, causing her fluffy curls to bounce around her head.
"No, it's the first they've seen, but based on the message left, and the heinous nature of the crime, local police are afraid more is coming," she said, a bit nervously as she twisted her hands around the remote for the projector.
"I'd say they're not wrong," Reid finally piped in, leaning back in his chair as his eyebrows came together in his usual thoughtful way before he spilled a ton of facts for the group to quickly digest. "This level of violence and apparentness indicates a psychopathology where only an escalation is probable, most likely very quickly. I'd say whoever is next might be found disemboweled before we can even get there," he explained factually, speaking slightly with his hands as he reiterated what he could off of such little information. Hotchner nodded once before rising from his chair.
"Then we're off to New Jersey," he said simply, and the team knew to pack their things quickly, for they were leaving immediately. "It's been awhile since we've been to the former murder capitol," he said absently to Rossi. The other man nodded a bit.
"Strange, don't you think?" Rossi didn't wait for a foreboding answer to his question before he left to prepare himself.
The plane ride was short since they were on the same coast, and only a few states away from New Jersey. While the team reviewed the case files, and chatted amongst themselves about it, Aaron sat alone in a corner, pondering once again over the recruitment files. He trusted his team enough to let this case go unanalyzed by him, for now. The last thing he needed was Strauss breathing down his neck more so than she already was. He'd feel more at ease once he made a decision.
He had narrowed his choices down to three by the time they landed, but still, something didn't feel right about any of the selections. Maybe it was just his tiredness, or his shot nerves. Maybe it was just the distraction of a new case. He didn't know why, but Aaron Hotchner couldn't make up his mind about these new potentials. As they were picked up from the airport by a police car, he pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind to focus on the case at hand.
"Any new developments," the lead agent immediately asked of the policeman. The bald officer shook his head.
"No, everything we have, we sent to you," he added gruffly, casting a glance in the rear-view mirror through his sunglasses to get a look at this hot-shot specialist team. He wasn't fond of the idea, bringing outsiders in, but it wasn't his call to make.
Hotch nodded slightly before picking his phone up, and dialing Morgan in the car behind them. "Morgan, tell the officer to take you and Reid to the crime site. See what you guys can gather from there. Rossi and I will take the police station, and talk to whomever they gathered there," he instructed.
"Right-o, boss. We'll get in touch once we've found something," Morgan responded smoothly, before hanging up and informing their driver of where to take them. As they younger boys were driven to the construction site, Hotchner and Rossi ended up at the police station.
"We have the victim's sister waiting in an interrogation room, a few co-workers, and the boss who found him for you all to talk to," their police driver explained to them as they waltzed into the busy police station. The FBI agents nodded, and thanked the man until they were passed on to the police chief.
"Have you interrogated any of the people so far," Rossi asked the man, whom nodded at the question.
"Yeah, the boss and the victim's sister were questioned, but we didn't have much luck getting anything we didn't already have. We were hoping you guys could pull some more information. Our summer intern is doing a follow up with the sister now," the police chief informed them, and nodded his head in the direction of the interrogation room the woman was held in. The BAU seniors immediately made their way toward the room, and were surprised to find two women sitting in the room.
One had stringy blond hair, a red face, and puffy eyes from crying; she was obviously the victim's sister. The other one, whose back was to them at first, actually took their breath away when she turned around to face them. The fact that she was a female wasn't what struck them; it was how young she looked, and how stunningly beautiful she was.
Her skin was smooth, with a natural bronze that came from her Latino culture, and too much time in the sun. Her hair was chocolate brown, but had bleached out in the sunlight to give her an auburn color, with deep highlights of red and blonde embedded in almost every strand. Her eyes were intense, but had a soft, almond shape to them. They were light brown, and the longer they looked, the more they could see the honey gold circling just around her pupil. She had full lips that were a dark pinkish red. She didn't need to wear make-up to be gorgeous, so the fact that she was wearing light traces of eye shadow, eyeliner, and a soft lipstick made it almost impossible for them to take their eyes off of her face. She presented herself well, in a black pencil skirt and a blue blouse covered with a vest. It flattered her, and could not hide her voluptuous figure that was even more mesmerizing being coupled with her slender navel and legs.
The men were well practiced with their emotions, and only paused a moment as they entered the room. Nothing gave them away in their face, but the young woman noticed the spark in their eyes. She didn't flutter and eyelash at them though as she stared back, awaiting their introduction.
"Are you the summer intern," Hotchner asked curiously, rounding the desk to get a better look at her. She smiled a little, and nodded to him once.
"Yep. Name's Vanessa Courtez, but I prefer Ness for short. And you are," she said, intrigued, lifting a brow as she looked from one man to the other.
"I'm SS Agent Hotchner, and this is SS Agent Rossi," he mentioned, pointing the tip of his folder at his companion. "We're from the Behavior Analysis Unit of the FBI. We were called in to assist on your boss's case," he explained, turning his attention to the withered secondary victim.
"Ah," Vanessa muttered, turning her heated gaze back to the poor woman sobbing into a tissue. "Well, I was about done, anyway. I'm sure you can do better than my simple routine questioning. I should go file this and get back to my dissertation anyway," she added, rising from the chair. She held her hand out to shake Rossi's hand, but paused when he gave her a surprised, but impressed look.
"You're a doctorate student?" She smiled at the older man's question, and nodded a little to him. "But you're so young," he added in disbelief. Shaking his head a little, he looked over her once and said, "You can't be more than twenty."
"Twenty-four, actually. That's the proper age for a doctorate student, so I'm told," she said slyly as she began to walk out of the room. Rossi followed her to the door.
"Yes," Rossi commented with a chortle in his throat, "you just look very young, is all. Pardon me. It'll be good for you in later years though. Do you like your studies?"
Vanessa smiled wryly as she stepped out of the office. She turned to look at Rossi, standing in the door. Her gaze flickered to Hotchner as he finally took his gaze off of her to sit in the seat across from the victim's family member. When she looked back at Rossi, her mouth opened to say, "I get that a lot. Sometimes, they still try to card me at the movies. And my studies? I actually just wanted to put off paying back my student loans for a few more years. I figured the best way to keep the government off my back was to stay very close to them, and pretend to enjoy doing research for them."
Rossi actually chuckled a little at her dry humor. The sarcasm was refreshing. He nodded a little to her. "Fascinating," he said as he gripped the door and began to close it around him. Before he shut her out, and she turned away, he asked, "what's your field of study?"
"I'm going for my Ph. D in Clinical Forensic Psychology. I have two years left to the program, and I just started my dissertation on the difference between psychopaths who commit murder, and those who do not," she answered kindly. She smiled a little, and nodded to the senior agent before waving, and leaving him to do her work. Rossi closed the door with a smile on his face.
As Reid and Morgan were pulled up toward the crime scene on a different scaffold, Spencer went into his usual rant of egregious statistics.
"Do you know pulleys may have been invented as early as 1500 BC in Mesopotamia? They were rudimentary, and only pulled water up from wells. Archimedes didn't invent the first compound pulley until 287 BC. Without his invention, the block and tackle wouldn't be possible, which allows scaffolds, and other massive structures to be hoisted up like this," the awkward genius rambled on, his eyes ever watching up toward the sky.
Well practiced, Morgan let the kid say his piece without really listening. He knew when he could tune Reid out, and when he should listen; they had worked together long enough. While Reid said his piece, Morgan was running through his own thoughts. "How could anyone make a killing up this high? Even with these things being sturdy as they are, that kind of violent force is bound to make a scuffle. There would be a lot of movement to cause the scaffold to sway around. How could the unsub keep his balance long enough to beat the man without either of them falling off," Derek pondered insightfully.
Reid took a moment to think about it, his brows furrowing. His lips pursed a moment, before he said, "unless he didn't kill the victim here. He could have beaten him somewhere else."
"And what? Dragged him up here, then dissected him, and painted on the wall? Why? Wouldn't we have seen evidence down below too," Morgan countered.
"Not if this unsub is methodical. There's tarp all over this place to cover equipment; he must have knowledge of the area to kill, and transport the victim without leaving a trace behind or being spotted," Reid hypothesized. It was then they reached the other scaffold. The boys were momentarily left speechless as their guide tied the two pieces together so the detectives to make their way onto the other one. The thing was covered in blood, leaving the wood stained brightly. As messy as the scaffold was, the message written above it was precise, and cleanly displayed. The letters were large, and finely crafted.
Both boys made their way over carefully; their boots were covered in plastic, as were their hands. They didn't even notice how high they were, or the view of the eastern part of the city; their minds were solely focused on the crime scene. Morgan pulled out a few pictures of the body he had been given at the station, and studied them while looking at the spot where it should have been. There was blood everywhere. While he did this, Reid studied the actual message.
"This guys is no light-weight," Morgan began as he studied the slightly overweight build of the victim. "To pull dead weight around like this, you'd have to be strong or working with a team. This guy has to be in good physical health, and is probably tall."
Reid was listening while he scrutinized the message. "Morgan, look at the penmanship of this message. It's completely flawless…this wasn't some crazed unsub splattering blood on the wall. He painted this on here," the boyish man said, slightly perplexed.
"What, you mean with a brush?"
"Yeah, exactly. He used a painter's brush," Reid commented. Both of them stared at the message with a newfound disturbing feeling in their gut.
When they had finished up at the crime scene, Morgan phoned in what they had gathered to Rossi as they were carted back to the ground. Hotch ordered them to go to the morgue next to inspect the body. It was waning into late afternoon as they got into the car, and began their route to the next destination.
"Hey Morgan," Reid said, a bit tentatively.
"Yeah?" One of Morgan's faint eyebrows quirked slightly as he watched his usually shy friend become even more nervous. The genius was fiddling with the strap of his backpack as he looked into his lap with a grave expression.
"You think Hotch is trying to replace Emily and JJ already," the man's tentative question came. Morgan was a little surprised he was asking this question at a time like this, but he couldn't deny he'd been thinking it himself. It was strange to see Reid so worried over it; they had received new members quite a few times over the last 7 years. It disturbed some of them more than others, but Garcia was always the one to fret the most over a new face. Reid was opinionated, a little awkwardly nervous maybe, but never this shaken. When Prentiss had faked her death, it had certainly made him more sensitive to gaining new team members. Why that was, Morgan would have to profile Reid for, and he tried not to profile his own team as often as possible.
"Yeah. He has to, kid. There are only four of us physically working on this case. We can't keep our own for long like this, no matter how good we are at it," Morgan said wisely, while trying to understand where this behavior was coming from. Instead of assuming, he decided to ask, "You afraid of something?"
Reid finally looked up from his bag, a slight twitch in his movement. "What? No! I've just been thinking if…maybe, it's time I get replaced," he responded a bit hesitantly. It wasn't long ago he wondered if there was more he could do, and the thought hadn't truly left him since he started pondering it. Morgan seemed a bit taken aback; out of all the possible answers for Reid's odd reaction, this hadn't been one he thought of.
"Hey, let's get one thing straight," Morgan said, "just because Hotch has to fill their positions doesn't mean Emily and JJ are being replaced. That's not possible, and there's certainly no way you could be replaced. Okay, kid?"
Reid actually passed a small, dull smile to Morgan. "Okay," he said weakly, but his eyes fell back to his backpack.
Author's Note: So, what do you all think so far? Let me know, so I know whether to continue! I know it wasn't so exciting so far, but I promise it will get better! This is my first time writing on this website in like 6 years, so please let me know how my writing has developed. Thanks!
