An early morning call had Spencer Reid rushing to the office on a cold Autumn morning. Upon his arrival, he ran into a yawning Penelope Garcia, the BAU's tech genius, who was always bubbly and full of life.

"Good morning Garcia," he said politely.

Garcia was one of his newer friends, though she made him a little squirrelly. She was always making sexual innuendos and jokes that at times went above his head. But she was a sweetheart and only wanted to see others smile. It truly hurt her to see others in pain, physically and emotionally.

She was actually the first person he had opened up to about his mom being Schizophrenic and how he feared that he may end up like her someday. To his surprise, she was very comforting regarding the entire situation and didn't tell anyone else on the team about his confession.

That being said, he liked to keep his distance and Garcia didn't know boundaries. She was always forcing hugs on him and trying to get him to go hang out with the rest of the team. She didn't understand that he liked his solitude and preferred to keep to himself when possible.

"Morning," Garcia muttered.

"You alright?" he asked as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Sure, I am. Everyone loves going to sleep at 1am only to be woken up at 5am with a request to immediately report to work."

"Why did you stay up so late?"

"Dr. Who marathon was on," she said.

"Oh, which doctor?"

"Ten, one of my favorites," she said with her hand on her heart.

"I, personally, prefer four, but ten is a runner up."

"What? No way! Ten is way better!"

The two continued to debate this as they walked to the conference room, where they found J.J. setting up for the debrief and a woman they didn't know sitting at the table. When she spotted the two of them, she jumped up from her seat with a smile.

"Good morning," J.J. greeted. "I'd like you guys to meet Emily Prentiss, she's our newest team member."

Emily reached out to shake their hands, but Garcia barreled past Spencer and wrapped her arms around Emily.

"Welcome!" she squealed as Emily laughed awkwardly. "I'm Penelope Garcia, the team's tech goddess, eye candy, and welcoming committee."

"Oh, I can see that," Emily giggled. "It's nice to meet you. J.J. told me so much about you, all of you actually." Her attention turned to Spencer's. "You must be Dr. Reid."

"Uh, yea. Hi," he said as he lifted his hand to give her his signature wave.

"Reid, doesn't shake hands. Germ thing," Garcia said.

"Its actually healthier to kiss than shake hands," he said matter-of-factly.

"Hmm, I'll keep that in mind," Emily said as he ducked his head to hide the blush that rose to his cheeks.

"Always the charmer our doctor," Garcia chuckled.

At that moment, Hotch, Morgan, and Gideon entered the room for the debriefing. Pleasantries were quickly squashed with Hotch insisting they begin immediately. Everyone hurried to their chairs and prepared for business.

"The DEA raided what they thought was a hardened meth lab right here in Northern Virginia, but they found this instead," J.J. said as she pulled up a picture of two large tanks attached to an explosive device.

"That could be a dispersal device for a chemical weapon," Derek stated. "Sophisticated."

"Homeland security is thinking Al queda," J.J. said.

"It developed devices that span the spectrum of sophistication, something as simple as soda bottles and paint cans," Spencer said to Emily.

He wasn't sure why he felt like explaining it to her. Maybe he was trying to impress her with his knowledge? Maybe he assumed she wouldn't understand what was going on, since it was her first day? All he knew, was he wanted her attention and found himself looking straight at her when he spoke.

"They're called alaikhtirae," Emily replied. "Literally meaning the invention."

Spencer stared at her in shock. Before turning to Derek who stared at him questioningly.

"Uh, they are," he agreed before looking back at Emily.

"Do we know what the biological or chemical agent is yet?" Hotch asked no one in particular.

"No," Morgan replied. "Not yet."

"The cell members bailed out through a tunnel. The DEA recovered a Nextel two way and managed to intercept a message," J.J. said as she handed them a yellow sheet of paper.

Spencer leaned over to read the note, exactly at the same time Emily did. The writing was in Arabic, which Spencer hadn't learned yet. He leaned back in his chair waiting for more, but was in for bigger shock when Emily started reciting the note out loud.

"Our friends surprised us and eloped. No longer wait for the wedding as planned. We can deliver our gift at the next crescent."

She looked up and was startled to find everyone staring at her. Instead of looking proud, she seemed sheepish and shrunk a bit in her spot.

"Uh, I lived in several middle eastern countries growing up."

Gideon broke the silence. "Next crescent?"

"Muslims sometimes use a lunar calendar. I'd have to look it up –"

As she spoke, Garcia was typing away at her laptop.

"Next crescent moon is in two days," she said with a smile.

"So, whatever they are attacking, it's happening in less than forty-eight hours," Gideon said.

"That sounds like it, sir," Emily said timidly.

"Payment for the Nextel was linked to this man, Jundiin Allah," J.J. said as a picture of a man appeared on the screen.

"Literally, soldier of god," Emily stated.

"That's pretty poor operational security for a sophisticated plot," Derek said.

"Two months ago, Jundiin Allah was captured in the US using a forged Pakistani passport by our Richmond International Airport. He's been held as a ghost detainee in Guantanamo Bay ever since," J.J. informed.

"So, technically, he doesn't exist," Garcia said.

"Soldier of god isn't a name," Gideon said as he looked to Emily for more of her knowledge.

Spencer felt a pang of jealousy at this. Usually everyone looked to him for this type of knowledge and now here was this new person stealing his job. He was the brains of the team!

"No, it's most likely a name taking on for the jihad. Meaning struggle, extremists claim it's a holy war," she began.

"Yet the names holy and war never appear together in the Quran," Spencer added so he could feel important again.

"Do we know his real name?" Gideon asked.

"CIA interrogators have gotten nothing out of the guy," J.J. said.

"They need us to break him," Gideon remarked.

"We do know from past intercepts that he is a recruiter. He came into this country to assemble the omega cell. A sleeper cell with an unknown mission," J.J. said.

"We have forty-eight hours to do what the CIA hasn't been able to manage in two months," Derek said in frustration.

"We could be looking at the first attack on our soil since 9-11," Gideon said ominously.

"Alright, Jason take who you need with you to Guantanamo, the rest of us are going to work here and see what we can find out," Hotch said as he gathered up his things.

"Reid, five minutes," Gideon said as he stood up and hurried from the room.

As the rest of the team gathered up their things and headed towards their desks, Hotch reached out and lightly grabbed Emily by the arm.

"Agent Prentiss, I want you to go with Gideon and Reid," he said.

"Oh, uh, yea, sure. If that's where you think I'd be most useful," she said nervously.

"Get your bag and be ready to go in five minutes," Hotch said before walking away.

Emily nervously rushed to her desk to start gathering up any last minute items she thought would be useful. Spencer noticed her shoving things into her black go-bag.

"You coming with?"

Emily looked up at him startled. He could see how anxious she was. He remembered how that felt when he started here. He was so afraid of making a mistake and wanted so badly to prove himself.

"Uh, yea. Hotch thinks it would be a good idea," she replied.

"Your knowledge on middle eastern culture would be beneficial. Not to mention, you're fluid in Arabic."

Suddenly Gideon trotted down the steps toward them. He looked irritated, making Emily shrink nervously against her desk.

"Car leaves in 4 minutes," he said as he breezed by her.

"Yes, sir."

Spencer watched Emily sigh in relief before turning back to face him.

"Ok, I'll follow your lead, Dr. Reid," she said.

(xxxxx)

The car ride to the airfield was not nearly as awkward as the flight. Emily sat with her hands in her lap watching Gideon and Spencer play chess, completely ignoring her. Gideon didn't seem to like her very much, but she wanted to be a part of the team so badly and she wanted to prove her worth. She took a deep breath and decided to try breaking the ice.

"Excuse me, sir. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate –"

"Do not thank me," Gideon grumbled without looking up from the chessboard.

"Sir?"

"It's not a favor."

"Of course, I know that –"

"You're coming to do a job."

Emily nodded and sat back in her seat. Her cheeks flaming red as her pulse quickened. The tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. She looked to Spencer in embarrassment.

"Uh, do you think the interrogation with Jundiin Allah will work in time?" he asked Gideon, in hopes to set the playing field back to Emily's strengths.

Gideon looked up, as if puzzled by Spencer's question. They were in the middle of a chess game after all. Spencer never talked business during chess.

"Interrogation is the most dynamic form of profiling," Gideon said.

"That's not an answer," Emily slipped.

Gideon looked up at Emily with disdain, while Spencer stared at her in shock. What was she doing? He was trying to help her out here and she was making it incredibly difficult.

"Sir," Emily amended as though that fixed what she had just said.

"He's been locked away in Gitmo. He doesn't know we raided the cell safe house that's an advantage for us. The main thing is to get him talking about anything. His language and body movements will betray him."

With that, he went back to making his chess move. Spence quickly followed that move with his own, when Gideon started profiling him as an example.

"It's like this, you just focus on how your pawn holds his piece so quickly, so firmly he places it and then you watch his face and body. A telegraphic player's strategy is training. Get his motivations."

"Is that what you need us to do?" Emily asked. Finally feeling a part of this mission.

"No, I need you to listen. You're fluent in Arabic. I won't know the nuances like you. Every word, every phrase. Be on the lookout for subtext, ulterior meanings –"

Spencer felt the jealousy burning inside him again. It reminded him a bit of his competition with Ethan. He wanted to one-up Emily. He wanted to be integral to this job and more so than her.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to watch for tells. Nonverbals, micro-expressions. Watch him when he's comfortable and relaxed and note the behavioral changes when he's under stress."

Spencer nodded. That was a harder job than what Emily had to do. He felt important once again.

"If we can establish a baseline, we'll be able to read him once I challenge his belief systems. Before I can get him to give up where and how they'll attack I'll first have to cause him to reveal something of himself."

Suddenly, Gideon looked out the window before quickly buckling his seatbelt.

"Game over," he said.

"What are you talking about?" Spencer said just before the plane made a sharp turn causing the pieces to fly across aisle toward Emily.

Once the plane righted itself, they both looked to Gideon in confusion.

"Gitmo's runway is perpendicular to the Cuban airspace, so approaching aircraft have to negotiate at a last minute 90-degree right turn in order to land. They call it the Gitmo twist."

Spencer looked at the chess pieces all over the floor.

"I was winning."

"Actually, he would've had you in three," Emily said nonchalantly as she adjusted herself in her seat.

(xxxx)

A/N: I am still writing my other story, but this one was eating away at me as I watched Season 2 the past couple of days. I feel like there was so much unspoken between Emily and Spencer in the earlier seasons that I just had to play with it.

I will be using parts of actual dialogue, but won't be doing it unless it's necessary to the story. There will also be lots of my own scenes added in as well as my own interpretations of what's going on.

Credit for the actual dialogue in this scene, from Season 2, episode 10, goes to Jim Clemente!