Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds. I also don't own the name I gave the pushy seminar lady. I have no idea what her name actually is. If anyone else does, please tell me… I can always change it. I might not though. I'm a bit stuck in my ways.
Reid had had enough. It wasn't often that the genius reached the end of his patience, but when it did happen, the rest of the team knew to look out. The last time was against a committee trying to tear them apart… this time was much worse in his opinion. The woman from HR wasn't just picking on his teammates: she was picking on Garcia in particular. Garcia was the light of the team who kept them from drowning in the darkness that constantly hovered over their job, and the entire team loved her for it. This woman was using her condescending voice to grind their light's personality into dust. Reid was just thankful that Hotch had called Garcia away before the woman truly got started. He decided to do something about it. Garcia had defended him more times than he cared to count in the past, so he was going to bide his time and do something to return the favor. After all, Garcia was family.
"Excuse me, Agent Joyner," Reid spoke up when the woman reached the question portion of the presentation, "I have a few questions."
Agent Rhonda Joyner smiled at the young agent, glad that someone was paying attention (and completely missing the gleam of mischief in his eyes) and said, "Yes, Dr. Reid?"
"In the years that I have been working for the BAU, I've been to twelve of these seminars, and I know that there have been others that were missed because of our cases. You have been leading them for the past three years, correct?"
The woman looked confused as she answered, "Yes, I was promoted to the position three years ago this may. Why does that…?"
Reid interrupted easily, "In the time before that, how many of these seminars did you attend as an agent?"
"More than I care to count. What does that have to do with anything, Agent Reid?"
"How many of them focused completely on a single person?"
Since Reid had come to them with his concerns several weeks before, he team already knew what he was doing, but that third question made everyone else struggle to hide their grins. Very few people liked Agent Joyner… especially after she was promoted. They were glad that someone was putting her in her place just a little bit.
"I fail to see how that..."
"In the three years you have been in charge of these meetings," Reid continued like he hadn't heard her, "you have given four that I have personally attended and another eight at times I have been out of town for cases, vacation time, or sick leave. I had Kevin Lynch, one of our technical analysts, send me transcripts from the meetings. While most of the information in them is redundant, I will occasionally find things that I didn't know before. For example, out of the twelve lectures you have given, six of them contain references to Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia and either her wardrobe or her mannerisms. Four of them reference Agent Morgan, and another three were about inter-office relationships and one even specifically referenced the relationship between Analyst Lynch and Analyst Garcia. Once I noticed the pattern, I went back over all of the lectures you have given, and found out that you have a tendency to target specific employees. I asked Analyst Alexander Swift and Agent Anyanka Jenkins to observe the video of each of your lectures, and they agreed with my assessment. So, I have one final question for you: If your job is to reduce the amount of hostility in the workplace and show us what is and isn't appropriate, why are you encouraging that hostility by forcing us to attend inappropriate lectures and seminars, and why are you actively participating in those meetings?" Reid finished, looking the woman right in the eyes.
Rossi stood up before the woman had a chance to say a word, "We have compiled a list of each time you have fostered hostility during one of these meetings. Everyone who had to sit through one of them signed the papers as witnesses. We sent our lists, along with videos of your lectures, to the Head of Human Resources half-way through this lecture. I would expect a meeting with him soon."
J.J. took that moment to speak up, "Even if he doesn't call you to his office, you can forget about leading a seminar in this bullpen again. We have better things to do than sit around and focus on your gossip sessions."
With that, the BAU walked out of the room. They were needed elsewhere. Slowly, one by one, the other agents in the room left until only Agent Rhonda Joyner remained.
