Chapter Two:

Hi, I sort of forgot how FFNet works when I uploaded the first chapter, and ended up uploading the first chapter without comment. So, this is my first foray into writing in six years, and I would like to thank w00t4ewan for the prompt, and Phoenix_Falls for beta reading. I'd also like to thank everyone who has read, reviewed, followed, and/or favourited the story, it's been a massive confidence boost to know that people are enjoying and interacting with the story :)

So here's chapter two, featuring definitely not straight Emily, and friendship! (although possibly not the friendship you're wanting...)

Emily was stressed. She hadn't been expecting to start her job until next week, but had received an email requesting if she could start immediately. She had none of her aids sorted out, her office wasn't set up, but apparently there was a backlog of things that needed translating due to how the previous translator had left the job and they needed to be cleared asap. So with all her books and equipment still in boxes, along with most of the contents of her new apartment, she put on the suit she'd worn to her interview, and braced herself for the day. It all starts with how you present yourself, as her mother was so fond of telling her.

Her day didn't get any less stressful. The world wasn't designed for people who have disabilities. Emily learned this as a child, and while things can be done to make it more accessible, Emily had always found that people often just didn't try. Emily knew sign language, she knew how to lip-read, she could often fill in the gaps by reading body language, but still, not being able to hear the world around her was frustrating sometimes. And her first day as a translator at the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime was one of those frustrating sometimes. She had expected the FBI to have provided a translator - as ironic as a translator needing a translator seemed - for her first day to help her get acquainted with people and get sorted, but she was left to fend for herself at reception. She had to navigate to her new office by herself, asking for directions by typing on her phone.

By the time she had finished up with the paperwork with her new boss - a rather dour man named Graham - she was looking forward to spending the day in her office, working on translations and not having to interact with any more people. She wandered down the hall to her new office and began mentally planning how she would set it up when all her gear was delivered. The desk was facing away from the door for some unknown reason, that was going to cause problems until she could set up an alert system to let her know when people walk in. The shelves were mostly bare only a couple of books left from the last occupant scattered around. Her desk had a computer, pens, paper and a frankly obscene number of files waiting to be translation. It wasn't a large office, but it was better than working in a bullpen where other people might try and get her attention and think she is ignoring them.

Emily spent the next couple of hours working her way through the files on her desk. Most of them were relatively easy translations of letters and journals belonging to suspects, victims or prisoners. Some of the files were confusing, they'd already been marked complete, but had been returned, as the work that had been done on the translations was shoddy at best. She wondered just what had happened to the last person to hold this position if that was the standard of work they were doing before they left.

Deciding a coffee would help her decipher the notes left in the file she was currently working on, Emily headed to the nearby breakroom, taking the file with her. She was relieved to find the break room empty, and spent fifteen minutes at a table puzzling over the noted and sipping at her coffee before something finally clicked and she hurried back to her office to make notes before she forgot.

Still annoyed at the layout of the office, she wondered if she could rearrange it to make it easier to see when people needed her. However, she was more focused on the file in her hands as she entered her office again, so she headed straight for her desk and began scribbling down her theories along with an accurate translation. Her focus was broken when a different file was thrown down on top of the pad she was currently writing on. Emily stared at it for a moment, cursing the fact that she had no way of knowing when people were entering her office, and that it had caused her to jump, before spinning in her seat to catch a blonde woman storming out of her office.

Emily went to chase after her, but made it to her door before deciding there was no point. Explaining would be too difficult and Emily just didn't have the emotional energy to want to do it, so she went back to her desk, put the file aside, and continued working on the file she had been, feeling mildly spiteful but mostly just wanting to get the first file done while she had a rough idea of what the original translator had been trying to write in their notes.

Eventually Emily managed to get to the file that had been dumped in front of her. Looking at the file, she could understand why whoever had brought it down was so frustrated, the notes said it had been delivered to a news outlet, and the BAU needed it translated asap so they could verify what it said, and they also needed an analysis of the letter to see if it was genuine, and if the wording of the original indicated if it could be a hoax of not. Emily felt bad for the person who was supposed to be looking over the translation that had been sent up originally, it was hardly English itself, there was no way someone could do any analysis on it. So she went into great detail in the notes she was writing up for the translation, providing both the translation as well as writing up an explanation for why she had drawn the conclusions she had. Reading the original letter, it had become apparent that whoever was writing it was not a native Arabic speaker, someone was trying to incite panic by sending a letter to the news threatening terrorist attacks. She finished up her notes and decided to take the file up personally so she could explain to the woman that she hadn't deliberately been ignoring her.

Emily wandered through the BAU bullpen flicking through the file to try and figure out who she had to give it to, something she knew she should have done earlier but hadn't gotten around to. Agent Jareau, communications liaison for one of the BAU teams. Walking up the stair to Agent Jareau's office, Emily noticed the door was closed and the office empty so she decided to ask one of the agents in the bullpen for advice.

Derek Morgan was trying to find a way of procrastinating doing the paperwork that was in front of him so he was people watching. As he was doing this he saw a woman walk into the bullpen, look through some papers and head up to JJ's office before looking over the bullpen for advice. Deciding that this was a sign from the universe that the paperwork could wait, he put on his most charming smile and went to greet the woman. "Hi there, welcome to the BAU, JJ's out at the moment. Can I help you with something?"

Emily noticed the tall, well-muscled man approach her and start to speak. Once he had finished greeting her, she signed slowly and deliberately, "I am deaf, sorry," she went to grab her phone to type a message to show him, but stopped when he started signing back.

"Hey, no problem. My name's Derek, if you were looking for JJ, she's at lunch at the moment, but should be back soon," his smile becoming softer and slightly more genuine, causing Emily to relax for what felt like the first time that day.

"Thanks I'm Emily," Emily replied, a relieved smile forming. "I just need to drop off this translation for her. The note said it had to be done asap, and I think she thought I was ignoring her when she came into my office earlier so I just wanted to explain that it wasn't on purpose."

Derek opened the door and gestured to the desk. "Just leave it there, she'll see it when she gets in, and I'm sure she isn't mad, we've just got back from a tough case, so she may have been a bit short with you, but it's fine. She'll be happy to have the translation back so fast. And if you want to wait for her, you can keep me company while I ignore my paperwork," he added with a grin as the both headed back down the stairs.

"Well, you are the first person I've actually been able to talk to today," Emily quipped back, smiling and shaking her head. "I guess it wouldn't do to leave you alone without an excuse to not do your paperwork."

Emily talked to Derek for about ten minutes, until she began to feel guilty for being away from her desk and for stopping Derek from doing his paperwork, no matter how much he insisted he welcomed the distraction. She began getting up from where she had been perched on an unused desk next to Derek's "As much as I've enjoyed talking, I really should get back to work. There is a literal mountain of files waiting for me in my office."

"Alright, but you should take my number in case your 'literal mountain' collapses on you," His fingers and face expressing his sarcasm as he stood too, reaching for a business card.

Emily laughed, before shaking her head, completely missing Agent Jareau's return. "I really hope that wasn't an attempt to flirt with me, cos for one, it was terrible, and two, I'm sorry, I prefer my dates to be rather less, well," Emily game him an assessing look. "Male. Sorry."

"Hey, don't sweat it. It's fine. Take it anyway, you still might get buried under your file mountain. Or you know, want to talk to someone for more than ten minutes a day. Plus, at some point I want to see you and my Boy Wonder nerd out over foreign books and films, I think you'd get along really well with him."

Emily rolled her eyes, and caught Agent Jareau glaring at her from just outside her office, sighing internally because despite Derek's assurances, it did appear that the woman was angry with her. A touch on her arm drew her out of her thoughts.

"Hey, I have to go now, JJ's back and we are probably gonna spend the afternoon going over profiles, but I'm serious. We should be friends, text me some time," he started heading towards the stairs. "I can introduce you to all the cool people," he joked as he left.

Emily waved goodbye as she headed towards the doors, grinning and huffing out a small laugh, happy to have somehow made a friend, even if it would also appear she had made someone else dislike her. She pushed the image of Agent Jareau glaring at her out of her mind, dwelling wouldn't help, and as Derek had said, his team had just come back from a tough case, Agent Jareau was probably just tired, and stressed from the quality of the original translation. Emily would just have to make sure she made a good second impression.

Thanks for reading! :)

I'm working on getting chapter three up within the next couple of days, but apparently RL keeps keeping on, so I may take a bit longer to get chapter three posted.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, any feedback is welcome!