Chapter 1

Cailyn Hart stepped through the glass doors of the BAU, clutching a travel cup of coffee to warm her hands against the early morning chill. For early April, the temperatures were unusually low. She glanced at her watch again, and searched the lobby for a familiar face. Suddenly, she heard a voice behind her. "Cailyn?" She turned around, a wide grin cresting across her face.

"Spencer!"

Spencer Reid smiled and awkwardly swept one arm across the expansive rooms. "Welcome to the BAU." Cailyn grinned as she saw his customary sweater, today a light plum. His chestnut hair was longer than the last time she had seen him, which had been over three months ago.

"Thanks!" She said. "And thank you for the letters, you have helped me so much in my behavioral psych class."

Reid's voice cracked a little as he replied. "No problem. Professor Dugdale can be challenging. I enjoy writing. And…and reading. And advice! I mean, giving advice." He blushed nervously, but Cailyn was too busy glancing around the offices to notice, taking in the modern glass and chrome and the light, professional atmosphere humming with an undertone of urgency. As Reid continued chattering, Cailyn hanging on every word, Morgan and Blake walked through the doors. Although Blake was distracted by her cell phone, Morgan immediately noticed Reid and the attractive young lady next to him. He elbowed Blake in the side.

"Ow! What the heck, Morgan?" She stowed the phone in her purse, and gawked at the young pair. "Who's that with Reid?"

Derek looked just as shocked. "I have no idea…" As they rounded the corner to their desks, they saw Rossi walk by. "Hey Rossi!" Morgan called out. "You know who pretty boy's pretty lady is?"

The older agent's cheeks creased, wide wrinkles embracing his knowing smirk. "Yes." He said playfully, continuing his path to Hotch's office.

Exasperated, Morgan rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Rossi! Give me something to work with here." Rossi merely grinned, knocking on Hotch's door. Morgan turned back to Blake, his tone more serious.

"Why hasn't he told us? I mean, are they dating?"

"You think I know?" Blake scoffed, struggling to fix her hair after the blustery morning. "He would've told you before he told me. Anyways, you can ask him yourself." Blake glanced at the door. "They're walking in now."

Reid and Cailyn stepped through the glass doors into the bullpen, still chatting. Hotch looked out at the pair, and caught Reid's eye. After dropping his bag onto the desk chair, he gestured for her to follow him and the two traversed the workspace to Hotch's office. He shut the door behind them, but Morgan and Blake surreptitiously watched the windows, watching the groups' every moves.

Morgan leaned back in his chair. "This is driving me crazy! Everyone knows her but me!"

Blake looked affronted. "I don't know her!" Just then, JJ walked briskly through the door, her heels snapping on the tile floor.

"Know who?"

Morgan smiled. "Alright ladies, maybe I'm not the only one." He waved JJ over conspiratorially, gesturing over his shoulder at the closed door behind him. "Our doctor Reid brought a woman to work today."

JJ gasped. "Seriously?! How did we not know about this?" She strained to get a glimpse of the meeting. "Shoot! They're coming out now. Oh, hey, round table in…well, now. Let's go." She strode away, Morgan and Blake trailing in her wake, and entered the round table room.

Garcia was already there, typing away furiously on her laptop. Morgan smiled as he sat down next to her. "Garcia, sometimes I wonder how your keys don't just go up in flames." She giggled, and looked up to see Hotch, Rossi, Reid, and Cailyn enter the office. The tech leaned over and not-so-subtly whispered in Morgan's ear. "Who's this? Why do I now know her?"

He grinned in response. "Same question we're all asking, babydoll."

After everyone had settled into their seats, Hotch began the introduction. "Everybody, this is Cailyn Hart, a graduate student in personality and social psychology at Columbia University. She has asked to accompany us for a while to interact with some of the victims' families, and Agent Rossi managed to convince Director Strauss to allow it." He quickly went through the agents, gesturing to each one as he said their names. "And, you know Agent Rossi and Dr. Reid."

"It's nice to meet you all. I'm really glad to be working with such an accomplished unit."

There was an awkward moment of silence before JJ took over, passing out files to everyone at the table. "We're headed to Greene River in upstate New York. Yesterday, Greene River police found the third victim in a string of vicious stabbings, and two hours ago they discovered a fourth." She glanced at Cailyn and shrugged before sending the gruesome pictures to the large screen in the center of the room. "The victims were all stabbed in the center of the chest, breaking through the sternum. The bodies are left in various locations, nor necessarily high or low traffic areas."

Hotch stood up, gathering the files. "Wheels up in twenty. Ms. Hart, I assumed you have a go-bag ready?"

"Of course sir. Spencer told me to be ready for anything."

"Good. See you soon." He turned on his heel and walked out of the room. Morgan walked up to Cailyn as the group slowly filtered out of the room.

"So, Cailyn. Where did you do your undergrad?" JJ rolled her eyes as she left in exasperation.

Cailyn smiled, "University of Minnesota. I grew up around there."

Morgan smiled. "Minnesota nice, then?"

She grinned even wider. "That's what we tell people."

"How did you get into your field?"

"Actually, that's how I know Spencer and Agent Rossi. They came and gave a lecture at the university during my sophomore year. I was already planning to major in psychology, but they sort of inspired me to take it to another degree. I've been talking back and forth with Spencer for a while now, he's helped me through more than one graduate class…"

They both chuckled, and walked into the hallway. "But psychology of grief? That seems pretty specific."

The corners of her mouth turned down, and immediately, the profiler in Morgan registered his mistake, but she responded too quickly for him to take it back. "My father passed away when I was ten, and our family was never the same again. I guess I was just interested to see if everybody responds the same way."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's alright. I've come to terms with it."

Suddenly, Reid's voice interrupted them. "Cailyn! We need to grab your stuff and get your car to the garage so they don't tow it!" Morgan silently thanked Reid for his perfectly timed interruption, and continued navigating the maze to his desk.

"See you on the plane, Ms. Hart."

"Please, call me Cailyn. See you soon!"