Title: Schooled
Author: jareaufan
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: Elle/Sarah friendship, Reid/Sarah friendship. One of the two could evolve into actual pairings.
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, this is just a work of fiction for fan entertainment. All similarities to actual people and places are pure coincidence.
"Anything you're good at contributes to happiness." - Bertrand Russell
FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. Quantico, Virginia. The Next Day. 10:30 AM.
Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner sat at his desk finishing a file when he instinctively looked up at the clock. He shook his head then picked up his desk phone. A knock at his office door however, forced him to put it back down. "Come in." He beckoned to the unseen person.
The door opened to reveal a petite brunette female agent around twenty-five years old. Her ID badge hung from a lanyard around her neck, resting on the sky blue blouse she wore. Her gun was in a holster attached to the belt around her black pants, a spare cartridge holder on the opposite side of that – and a pair of handcuffs attached below the small of her back. "Agent Hotchner?"
"Yes?" He asked, conveying a sense of courtesy to his office guest.
The female agent then shut the door. "Agent Sarah Lombardi. I have an appointment with you?"
"You had an appointment fifteen minutes ago Agent. Sit." Hotch responded with a harsher tone, gesturing to a chair in front of his desk.
Sarah shut the door and took a seat, and immediately excused her lateness. "Had to help break up a fight outside the airport, it was taking the TSAs too long to respond." She offered, concluding with "sorry sir."
"Make sure you call next time Lombardi."
"Yes sir." Sarah replied, a bit of an apprehensive expression on her tanned features.
Hotch continued without missing a beat. "You're originally from the New York Field Office correct?"
"Yes, for three years. I graduated two years early from college."
"You were put ahead in school?" He inquired, his voice pitching a bit in accordance.
Sarah shook her head. "Just took some summer college courses in high school, along with AP courses my junior and senior years. I learn quickly, but I'm no genius."
Hotch nodded, "I assume you know that this is just a post-hire interview to just see your mannerisms?"
"I figured sir." Sarah replied, relieved.
Hotch smiled, an obviously rare occurrence. "Agent Lombardi, my team calls me Hotch."
Sarah smiled, the casual remark putting her at ease. "Call me Sarah then if you want to. Thank you so much for this."
Hotch got up and shook Sarah's hand. "The majority of the team should be in the bullpen if you want to go get acquainted."
"Sounds good." Sarah replied, soon thereafter exiting the office after Hotch.
They headed across the raised walkway, then down the stairs and into the bullpen to a particular cluster of desks. The three agents occupying the desks didn't notice them arrive at first, but then were soon snapped out of their intensity.
"Team, this is Supervisory Special Agent Sarah Lombardi. She'll be joining the BAU starting today as part of our initiative to expand the main team." Hotch offered.
A muscular African-American man stood up to shake Sarah's hand. "So you're the one they picked to fill out our ranks? I'm Derek Morgan." He then flashed a small-but-brilliant welcoming smile.
"Elle Greenaway," offered an athletic tan-skinned woman after she set down a pen she was attempting to fix.
A lanky pale-skinned man stood up next after nervously adjusting his tie. "Dr. Spencer Reid. Nice to meet you."
"I'll leave you all alone now to get acquainted, I have to go prep a case." Hotch added before heading off towards the conference room.
Elle then spoke up, gesturing to the desk across from her own. "Your plate is on that desk, and someone unpacked boxes into the drawers earlier – so I guess we're desk partners."
The team then all sat down at their respective desks, Sarah also took the opportunity to quickly unpack some of the desk drawers and personalize her desktop. Morgan looked over at her while he played with a stress reliever ball, tossing it up in the air and from hand-to-hand before settling on just squeezing it.
"So where'd you transfer from Lombardi? Or are you a rare straight-to-BAU like Reid here?" Morgan asked, breaking the ice before tossing the stress reliever to Reid, who fumbled before he managed to actually catch it.
"Sarah." She corrected with a smile as she withdrew a picture of a man in an NYPD uniform and placed it on her desktop near the phone and pencil sharpener.
"Alright then Sarah." Morgan returned the smile. "Where'd you transfer from?"
"I was at the D.C. Headquarters for a year before I got accepted here; but I spent the majority of my career in the Violent Crimes Division on a Response Squad at the New York Field Office. I was there for three years, started when I was twenty." Sarah informed Morgan, concluding with a smart smile.
"See Reid? You aren't the only genius in the Unit." Elle quipped.
"Not a genius." Sarah interjected. "Just determined. I took summer classes my junior and senior years of high school, then also some AP courses. The FBI looked at my transcripts and offered me enrollment into the Academy despite my age."
"I'd qualify that as relative genius Sarah. Because just the ability to enter into those courses and pass with the credits requires a great amount of knowledge and academic prowess." Reid offered with a small smile.
"Thanks Reid." Sarah replied.
"So did you grow up in New York, or just work there?" Elle asked. "I grew up in Brooklyn myself."
"I lived there with my Dad since I was six; after Mom died. More in the Manhattan area near the Fourteenth Precinct, because Dad was a patrol officer there. He's a Captain now."
Elle nodded. "My dad died when I was little, he was in the NYPD too."
"He must have been a good man." Sarah replied, offering Elle a small sympathetic smile, which was returned.
A balding man in his fifties then interrupted the conversation as he walked across the platform walkway towards the conference room. "Hotch wants us all in the conference room now. J.J.'s got a case for us."
As they all ascended the stairs towards the conference room, Sarah looked to Morgan. "Is that Gideon?"
"The one and only." He replied with a chuckle as he held the door for everyone to enter.
After everyone had entered, Morgan closed the door and took a seat between Sarah and Elle, Reid took the seat on the other side of Sarah, with Hotch taking the one next to Elle, and Gideon next to Reid. A blonde agent, J.J., took the forefront – standing near the flat screen monitor with a remote – as Hotch passed around copies of the casefile.
"Gene Bower was murdered yesterday in Johnsonfield, Michigan." J.J. said, bringing a DMV photo of a smiling bespectacled red-headed man up on the screen with a click of the remote. She then clicked the remote again, and a photo of a scorched car with a badly burned body in the driver's seat appeared on the right next to the DMV photo. "His body was identified by a ring he wore and traces of DNA."
"The lead detective on the case believes it's connected to where he worked." Hotch offered.
"Herbert P. O'Dell High School. Another recent case involved a retired teacher, Angela Robards. She was found at the bottom of her stairs with a broken neck." J.J. continued.
Elle glanced at her casefile. "It says here that Robards retired nearly five years ago. Why'd the detective make the connection?"
"Robards was a teacher-mentor to Bower when he started at the school." J.J. informed upon glancing at her notes.
"The deaths aren't similar." Sarah thought out-loud, crinkling her brow in concentration as she read through the file. Upon finishing, she looked up at J.J. "Did they rule out accidental death with Robards?"
"The M.E. confirmed that the type of fracture sustained was unlikely to be caused by a fall." J.J. replied, reading through her initial report from local P.D.
"They're related. I don't doubt that. It's a classic M.O. The first to throw us off, make it look like an accident. The second is where the UnSub breaks out of their shell. The murder makes them feel good and they escalate into greater acts, but it's messy. The next one will be swift, more calculated, and thought-out. A perfect triad so to speak. So it will more than likely take some time for the UnSub to strike again." Gideon interjected. "We need to play this softly, send someone into the school undercover."
"The principal is offering counseling to those who feel affected by Bower's death. The community still believes Robards was a tragic accident, and I've instructed the Detective on the case to keep reporting it as such." J.J. added.
"The perfect time to test the waters. See genuine reactions first-hand. Lombardi, you ever go undercover?" Gideon continued.
Sarah shook her head, excited-but-apprehensive. "But to be honest sir, I just officially joined this unit less than an hour ago. Wouldn't it be better if I did background work to start off with?"
"We could send Reid, but judging from what I observed in the bullpen, you integrate well. Plus I reviewed your record when we selected you for this position." Gideon countered.
"Elle, you could go in as backup, an older sister that she lives with. But we're not forcing either of you to do anything." Hotch offered, casting a glance at Gideon.
"I'll do it." Sarah responded after taking a short time to think the situation over.
"Well then I've got your back." Elle added.
"Alright, I'll give you two some time to talk and go home to pack more. Wheels up in five," Hotch concluded before he and Gideon left the room.
Morgan, Reid, Sarah, and Elle stayed behind to gather up their files.
"Nice going Lombardi, snagging undercover on your first day." Morgan congratulated, genuinely happy for his fellow agent.
"I can't believe I'm going back to high school. I thought I left all that behind years ago." Sarah replied in disbelief. "It was kind of rough."
"Don't worry about it." Morgan offered, placing a hand on Sarah's shoulder before leaving the room with Reid.
"Sisters?" Elle asked with a slightly raised brow, turning to Sarah once they finished gathering their files.
"I guess so." Sarah replied with an agreeing smile before they left to go pack and compare ideas.
