A/N: I have been thinking about a story centered around Spencer Reid for a very long time now and finally got to write something. In this story I will rather focus on his character development than on the cases of the BAU. Mostly I will adapt cases from the show with a more detailed story about Reid around it. The other characters of the show will also be part of it and in addition there is going to be a new character, that is going to be very important.
Set in late season 4. Starting with episode 4.19 "House on fire"
Some disclaimers on my behalf: English is not my mother language so I apologize in advance if there are mistakes. Also I am not super smart, but I hope the things I let super-smart Reid say are not total crap. And: I do not own the characters of the show or the show itself. Except for the new character :D
1. Strangers are just friends waiting to happen
"This is news footage from the movie-theater in Royal, Indiana, population 2 000. Earlier tonight 19 people were killed." JJ introduced the new case to the team. It was Monday morning in early spring and everybody was still tired and partly still processing the struggles of the last case of "The Reaper", that was still unsolved, since George Foyet had managed to escape. While JJ presented the facts of the new case to the team, Reid looked around wondering about the absence of Hotch.
"And they're sure it's arson?" Morgan just inquired. After the team had discussed their first thoughts on the case Reid asked the others where Hotch was.
"He is right now meeting with our newest team member." Rossi informed the others.
"I didn't know we were getting a new team member!?" Emily stated.
"Since I'm stepping a little back from my work in the field, it was decided you could use some more support." JJ explained. Reid looked up from the sheets in his hand. "You're stepping back? I didn't know? Why? I thought you were good?"
"Calm down, I will still be around here in Quantico. I just don't feel good leaving Henry behind this much. I feel like I'm missing out, you know." She gave him an apologetic look.
"So who is he? Or she? Have you met the new one yet?" Garcia turned to Rossi, who just shrugged. "Well I assume it's a she, but you can ask her herself." He pointed to the open door, where Hotch was talking to a rather young woman, both of them approaching the office, in which the others were waiting.
"Good morning. May I introduce to you your new team member, Special Agent Falkenbach." Hotch greeted the team.
"Hi everyone! Nice to meet you." The young woman smiled and looked from one to the other, occasionally locking her eyes on the floor. Reid could tell she was nervous, but as she made eye-contact with him her gaze didn't flicker, implying a good portion of natural self-confidence. He couldn't help but notice she was pretty. She wasn't exactly tall, based on her proportions he guessed about 5'4" feet. Her figure was rather slim but not skinny. In spite of her very light blonde waist-long hair and dark blue eyes the colour of her skin hinted that she might tan easily. Reid guessed that her parents both had rather dark hair and her blonde hair just came to happen by both of them passing the recessive gene for blonde hair to her.
"Welcome to the team!" Rossi greeted her shaking her hand. "You might just jump in the deep end with us right now. We're going to Indiana."
"Did you present the case to them?" Hotch asked JJ who nodded. "Okay. Plane is ready in 30. Alright for you to rush into this on your first day with us?" He addressed Agent Falkenbach.
"Yes I think so. I..." she trailed off gliding her fingers through her long hair. Reid totally understood her being nervous. He could remember every second of his first day and he had been terribly nervous. Giving a closer look to the skin around her eyes he guessed she must be in her early or mid twenties maybe 2 or 3 years younger than him. He also noticed that she wasn't wearing any make-up – as far as he could tell, since he didn't really know a lot about this stuff. While he had been thinking about the new girl most of the others had left the room to prepare for the flight. Now it was only him, her and Garcia, who was typing something on her notebook. Agent Falkenbach looked around the room awkwardly kneading her hands causing Reid to frantically search for a subject he could talk to her about. He had never been good with small talk, but still had managed to get along. So he just blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.
"Falkenbach sounds German." He said, wondering if people would consider this a weird start of a conversation. But the young woman looked kind of relieved with this subject.
"Yes. I actually am German. I mean, I was born in the USA, but my parents are German and I was raised there. In northern Germany, not in the southern part. When people think of Germany, they always think of Bavaria, but that's just a part of it. I do not identify with Lederhos'n and Oktoberfest at all. But I actually attended University in Munich. But-" She stopped in mid-sentence realizing she hadn't taken a break to breathe in the last 30 seconds. "I'm sorry. I'm rambling." Her hand went up into her hair – for the second time within a few minutes. Reid noted this as a nervous habit of her.
"Don't be sorry." A small smile was playing around Reid's lips. "I can actually speak some German. Tell me more of that later, we will have some time on the plane maybe. I will just go and grab my bag for travelling." He waved his hand and left the room.
She stayed behind and smiled a little to herself, but thinking of his last remark got a little confused. She contemplated about asking the woman with the glasses and the colourful clothes about it.
"Sorry," she inquired sheepishly. "What did he mean with 'bag for travelling'? I didn't bring a bag..." Garcia looked up from the screen of her notebook. "Oh sweety, it's your first day, right? When you have a case and you go to the place, where it happens, you usually stay there for a few days or even longer until the case is solved."
"Oh yes. Of course. I should have known that. I KNEW that. But I actually didn't expect to go just on my first day." She sighed. "Ugh. I was being stupid."
"Oh don't you worry, sweety. You can just buy some stuff when you get there. Even though it's in the middle of nowhere, they have to have some store there. I can send you an address to your cell-phone." Garcia offered reassuringly.
"Oh thank you, that's really nice. I thought I was prepared for this job..." She rolled her eyes.
"Penelope Garcia, at your service. Now go and get on the plane." Garcia ordered. "Do you see that woman with the dark hair outside? That's Emily Prentiss. Just follow her and you will get to the plane." She added after the new agent gave her a helpless look.
"Based on the limited population of Royal the unsub is most likely a local male between the ages of 17 and 30." Reid stated 45 minutes later as the team was discussing the case on the plane again. The new agent was a little cautious and listened mostly. After the team had talked back and forth about how to proceed when they were going to arrive, Rossi addressed her directly. "So, Agent Falkenbach, you have been very quiet for a start. What do you think about this as your first case?"
"I mean, until now I do not have any experience in the field. But I imagine it's going to be difficult: I grew up in a small town: People are going to assume everyone we question is guilty. I think we have to be very careful on how we address them." She answered calmly.
"She is right. We should definitely think of this, when we talk to the locals." Hotch agreed with her.
"Agent Falkenbach." Morgan said.
"Mh. Yeah?"
"You're part of the team now and all I know is your surname."
"What do you wanna know?"
"We could start with you first name."
"Well..." she chuckled, "do you want the long or the short version?"
"There is a long version?" He raised his eyebrows.
"My full name is Emilia Katharina Eleonore Elodie von Falkenbach zu Wiehenberg."
"That's a hell of a name." Prentiss commented.
"von Falkenbach zu Wiehenberg implies some aristocratic roots." Reid added.
"Yes, that's right. But if you want to call me by a first name you can just go with 'Kat'. That's a lot easier." The young woman suggested.
"But in fact you first name is Emilia, isn't it?" Emily asked.
"Technically yes, but no one ever called me that. I guess I just wouldn't react."
Later in the office of the local police station in Royal Reid, Hotch, Kat and Garcia – on the other side on the computer – were racking their brains about probable unsubs. There seemed to be no clue at all.
"I need to know who had enemies, who had secrets, who is a target!" Hotch demanded from Penelope, who tried to respectfully remind him, she wasn't a profiler. But he wouldn't back off explaining the time was running.
"Reid and Falkenbach, I need you to take a look at the smaller fires." He addressed the two agents in the room. "The others and me are gonna take part in the service, that is held for the victims and see if anybody is acting conspicuously." After his orders he rushed out of the room. Reid looked at Kat and gave her a small smile and then turned to the board, where they had hung all the pictures of the victims and the places the unsub had set on fire.
"A convenient store, a restaurant... he seems to be choosing his targets so randomly." Kat remarked.
"Well, actually I am pretty sure he is choosing his targets on purpose. They have to mean something to him." Reid responded.
"You said before, it's most likely, that the arsonist is a local. And even though in this town everybody seems to lead the perfect life, there are always people who seem to be or feel excluded by the community. Maybe someone wants to take revenge and targets places that symbolize the perfect small town life, like a convenient store or a movie-theater."
"Yes, that is a pretty good thought! We should stick with that." Reid gave her a reassuring look. "Not bad for your first day as a profiler. Did you study psychology?"
"I did. But I think in this case it's more my experience with small-town people. They just love to gossip and it's never a nice thing to be the object of all the gossip." She shrugged.
"Well, I grew up in Las Vegas, which is the opposite of a small town, and still managed to become the favourite object of people's gossip... so..." He trailed off.
"Wow Las Vegas, I kind of imagine growing up there is something completely different. But what do I know." She rubbed her head, which didn't go unnoticed by Reid.
"You know what? I'm gonna get us some coffee to fuel our thoughts about this." He suggested. "I'll be back in a minute!" Kat was glad about this suggestion. Even though she had managed to get over her first-day-insecurity she was still feeling a little tense. Especially around Hotch she was kind of afraid to say or do something wrong. He appeared to be quite strict. With Reid around her she was feeling more at ease. He was being supportive and she had to admit to herself that she felt the desire to get to know him better. As she realized her thoughts were drifting into a direction that wasn't related to the case at all, she tried to collect her thoughts and concentrate again. She wheeled around in order to get a pen for the board, but unfortunately Reid had just appeared behind her with two full cups of coffee. She ran right into him and he spilled the coffee all over her light blue blouse.
"Aaah!" She made.
"Oh no! I am so sorry, Kat!" He set the cups on the table. "I can get a towel... I ..." As he noticed the hot liquid made her light blouse a little transparent and he could see her underwear shining through it he locked his eyes on the floor and blushed. "Do you have your bag with the clothes here in the police station or at the hotel? You should change your clothes. Your blouse, it's ... soaked."
"Well, to be honest, I ... um... I didn't bring a bag with clothes at all. When I arrived this morning, I wasn't really expecting to go on a journey on my first day. I was planning to buy something later on today." She explained a little embarrassed.
"Oh well, um... I could lend you a shirt, if you'd want to. I always keep my stuff close." He offered.
"Yes? That would be great! Because running around in a police-office with a coffee soaked top, through which you can basically see my bra, is the last thing I'd want on my first day." She made a relieved sigh. Reid cleared his throat. "I'll just go and give it to you then. Um...the shirt." He walked out of the room rolling his eyes at his own awkwardness. He returned with a white button-down shirt and a wet washing cloth from the kitchen, so she could wipe some of the coffee off her skin, and handed it to her.
"Oh, thanks a lot!" She exclaimed and to Reid's surprise she began unbuttoning her top right in front of him. He raised his eyebrows, made a weird sound and turned around. Noticing his discomfort Kat stopped moving.
"I'm sorry. Changing right here is inappropriate, right? Sometimes I don't realize those things."She covered her eyes with one hand.
"No, I- yes. Well..." He stumbled over his words. "I mean, I think it's considered inappropriate, but this thing has been basically transparent for the past ten minutes now, so it won't even make difference anymore." He pointed to her clothing and blushed even more, his ears felt like they were burning by now. "But if anybody entered the room right now, this sight might cause some questions."
"You know what? I'm just hiding behind those boards here. I think this will work." She said while doing as she implied.
"Yeah and I will get us new coffee since we messed up the last one." At this point he was really glad to have an excuse to exit the room. Behind the board Kat chided herself for not thinking about her actions.
As Reid returned, Kat was dressed in his shirt, which was surely a bit oversized for her, staring at the pictures on the board. He himself had calmed down again. Carefully he placed the mugs on the table and stood next to her trying to refocus on the case, but she interrupted his thoughts again.
"I am sorry, if I made you feel uncomfortable... Reid." She added, not knowing his first name.
"Never mind." He said. "And it's Spencer."
"Alright then, Spencer." They shared a smile. "Let's get back to this." She said pointing at the board.
"Kat, what are you wearing?" Emily addressed Agent Falkenbach as most of the police officers were leaving the room after the team had presented the profile to them. There had been another fire in a bar, but still they had no precise hint of who could have done it.
"Well, what happened is..." She began to explain, but Rossi cut her off. "Isn't that your shirt, Spencer?"
"I accidentally spilled coffee on her top, so of course I offered her mine." He clarified.
"Accidentally? Well, well. I didn't know you could turn on your game so fast, pretty boy." Morgan mocked him.
"It WAS an accident!" For just another time Reid felt the heat crawling up his cheeks and further to his ears, reddening his skin.
"Guys, can we please focus again." Hotch tried to chide his co-workers, obviously intending to sound serious, but he also couldn't completely hide the grin, that was playing around the corners of his mouth.
Two days later the members of the team were sitting in their jet headed back to Quantico. Kat, dressed in a dark sweatshirt she had bought in a store in Royal, was sitting opposite of Reid, both staring out of the window. Morgan sat on the other side of the aisle, eyes closed listening to some music over his headphones. Emily and Rossi were absorbed in conversation, while Hotch, who was sitting next to Emily, already worked on some paper work for the case they had just solved.
Kat recapitulated her first case ever in her head. It gave her a strange feeling to know that all this might not have happened if the inhabitants of this little town had treated the boy, who should later become an arsonist, in a different way. She sensed somebody was watching her and found Spencer's gaze locked on her face. A few minutes before, Reid's eyes had wandered to her, who seemed to be deep in thoughts. He wondered how she felt about her first days in this job, if she was tired or satisfied or terrified or unhappy... or what she thought at all. Right now her eyes wouldn't give away a thing and just in that moment he realized that those eyes had been staring back at him for quite some time now. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something but then looked down. As he raised his gaze again he found her still watching him smiling a little mischievously. He searched for something to say.
"Shirt." He blurted out.
"What?" She chuckled.
"My shirt. You can give it back to me. Any time you want." He managed to say. Why can't I form coherent sentences anymore? He asked himself.
"Oh yes, sure. I am just going to wash it."
"Don't worry about that, you don't need to wash it."
"Yes I do." She insisted and he could then see her hesitating for a few seconds, her hand automatically reaching into her hair.
"You know..." She started. "I thought maybe I could make it up to you some time soon."
"Oh there is nothing you need to make up for."
"Yes there is. Without you the whole police office of Royal would have had the chance to see my underwear. And also I made you feel uncomfortable in this situation. So: Do you like Italian food? I can cook a terrific melanzane since I lived over two years in Naples." Reid was at a loss of words.
"Spencer?" She inquired. He just nodded.
"So is Saturday working for you?"
"Um... working for me."
"Great!" She got up from her seat. "Is the bathroom this way?" She pointed to the other end of the jet. Spencer nodded in response. She walked off and he stared into the direction she walked.
"Well she is working for you, pretty boy." Morgan commented who had taken off his headphones.
"You were listening to this?" Spencer asked.
"We all were, Reid." Emily laughed.
"I definitely have to talk to her about spending two years in Italy." Rossi stated.
"What do you mean 'working for me'?" Reid got back to Morgan's comment.
"You have a date, kid. Didn't you realize?"
"I-" he started but Morgan wasn't done teasing yet. "So you saw her in her underwear!? And also it has been pretty obvious: You're into that girl." Reid shot him a glance, but returned his gaze to the window, because he couldn't hide his smile anymore.
A/N: So this for a start. I am curious! What do you think?
