Chapter 2

I forgot to do the disclaimer thing at the beginning of the last chapter, so here it is: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of the characters on the show. Thank you for reading!

Through the glass windows of the bullpen, the team saw the exact woman from the photographs, walking through their office, alive, healthy, glowing even. She turned more than a few heads on her way in, she bumped into a man while she had her head buried in a file, and smiled sheepishly as she apologized in the most charming way. She waltzed up the stairs and knocked lightly on the door before coming in.

"Hi, I'm…"

"Avangeline Gideon." Hotchner answered.

"Oh, yeah, but, um, no one calls me that. Except maybe my Dad, and hardly even him. I'm Ava. I've been assigned to your team. " She just then noticed the pictures on the screen. "What are those?"

As she was filled in on the situation, her doe-like eyes slowly glazed over. A silence permeated the empty space after Rossi and Hotch finished talking. Her lovely, melodic voice slowly came out, almost like a whisper.

"Is this a joke? A 'Welcome to the BAU' prank? Yay! It's your first day of freakdom!?"

"I'm afraid not." Reid slowly answered. These were the first words he said to her. In her time of need, while she's scared about the freak that's stalking her, you couldn't come up with anything better? Nice going, Doc. Reid silently yelled at himself.

Ava's eyes met Reid's for the first time. And for just a second, she felt safe. There was a kind of honesty behind those hazel eyes that made her feel secure. And she didn't even know his name yet.

"Hotch was just saying that we should go check out the address of the sender." Morgan offered.

"Maybe you should head home for the day. If the UnSub thinks you're on to him, it may change his behavior, and we can't risk that right now." Hotch gave her his first order.

"Agent Hotchner, with all due respect, I came here to do a job, not to get shoved into the back of some dark-windowed Suburban to be sheltered. I've had enough of that. I don't want any special treatment because of my father." Ava asserted. Hotch was immediately taken aback by her gumption…as was the rest of the team.

"With all due respect, Agent Gideon, I am in charge of this team, and I say you are not coming. Stay here and do research with Reid."

"Yes, Sir." Ava somewhat begrudgingly answered.

The team filed out, one by one, to their respective jobs concerning Ava's case, and Reid and Ava were left together at the oblong desk.

"He's not all bad." Reid offered a weak smile. "Hotch. He's fiercely loyal, which is widely accepted as a trait to be admired, but sometimes he comes off a little rough. Anything he does, he does for the good of the team, and in this particular case, for your own personal safety. Though I admire your guts." God, you're such an idiot. Rambling on again, you're going to terrify her on her first day!

"I don't think he's bad at all. In fact, I like him. I'd like him a lot better if he stopped pretending he hadn't devoured my file dozens of times. He knows I'm more than qualified to be in the field. But I appreciate you pleading his case just the same." Ava responded. She liked his easygoing manner, and the way he talked too fast was just all the more charming. Just then, one of the photographs caught her eye.

"Wait, this photograph…the UnSub's been watching me practically my entire life." Laying in front of them was a photograph of Ava as a child, playing at the beach, Jason Gideon in the background. The message stated "Some say she was born of the sea."

"That would actually suggest that this isn't really about you, it's about who you came from. Your father. The UnSub's probably been following your father's career for years, but his retirement was probably the stressor that caused the UnSub to mess up, which then allowed us to get his address." Reid meant this to come out comforting, but to his dismay, it sounded more clinical than friendly.

"But what about these messages? "Born from the sea?" "Her mother?" "Angel?" They don't add up."

"Yeah. Sometimes these things don't add up right away though. Sometimes you just have to find the right puzzle piece to make it all…fit." Reid was speaking in a friendly manner, but the way she looked at him made him pause before finishing his sentence. It was like she was staring right through to his deepest, most secretive thoughts and feelings.

Ava took a second to clear her throat. Focus, Ava, it's your first day. There are bigger issues at stake than your new coworker. "My mother died in childbirth." Well that must have sounded awfully random.

"I'm sorry. I guess that complicates the "mother" messages."

"Guess so."

Just then, Reid's phone rang. The caller ID alerted him that it was Hotch calling.

"Reid, I'm going to need to send you on a different kind of job."

"Okay…? "

"I'll fill you in on what we found later, but I need you to be Ava's new security detail. 24/7, I mean it."

Hotch was on speaker phone, and when Ava and Reid heard Hotch's words, they just stared at each other with a shocked expression.

"Hotch, I'm sure Ava is more than capable of fending for herself." Reid attempted to defend her, which earned him a grateful smile.

"Reid, that's an order." Hotch hung up the phone before he could get anymore backlash.

"So…your place or mine?" Ava asked innocently.