Author: Ren Kayashima

Genre: Family/Thriller/ Mystery

Rating: T

Disclaimer:

0o0o0o0

Chapter Two:

Hotch stood up as he pushed himself away from his desk. He needed some lunch and his muscles were starting to cramp up from staying in a stiff chair for more than a couple hours. He left the confines of his office to find Reid and Rori engaged in a game of chess. Each one making a careful move as the rest of the team watched in mild amusement. Hotch pulled out his cell phone when he saw that Rossi was still out of his office.

"Dave, Rori is back in the BAU. She's playing chess with Reid," he said as Rori tipped Reid's king over. "Rather, she's beating Reid at chess."

Rori looked at Reid. "You probably should get back to work. You know, back to catching the bad guys. Thank you for playing with me," she grinned. It had been a while since she had played a good game of chess. She leaned back in the plastic chair she was seated in and pulled her legs up so that she was seated cross-legged.

"How often do you play?" Reid asked curiously.

"I used to play all the time. Now, it's more like once a week and I don't really have anyone to play with, just my friend Kenta, and he's kind of bad," Rori explained as she scratched her nose.

"Why did you start playing less?" Morgan asked. To say that he wasn't curious would be a gross understatement.

Rori turned to look at him. "Oh, I never introduced myself properly did I?" she asked. "Sorry. I'm Rori Morre."

Derek grinned and held out his hand for Rori to shake. Rori took it and squeezed his hand gently. "Derek Morgan."

Emily smiled and waved from her seat. "Emily Prentiss."

"It's nice to meet you," Rori nodded politely. She grabbed the white king off the board and held it in her lap. "I stopped playing it so often because my usual opponent tried to hurt me after a game."

"Why?" Prentiss asked. She heard of people hurting other players in football, soccer, - and baseball, -not chess.

"Well, I grew up with him, but I never told him I was smart. I didn't want to lose him as a friend, and he was one of the few that I did have. I moved schools a lot because none of them were really good at challenging me. After every move, Dan and I grew further apart. We started to play chess only when it suited him. I didn't really play the game. It was the conversation that interested me, so he won a lot," Rori explained. "As he started to get cocky, he thought he was superior to me in every way. He had a girlfriend, and bragged about more freedom. I got annoyed, so one day I actually focused on the game and not the conversation."

"He lost," Morgan guessed.

Rori nodded as she looked at the ceiling. "I beat him in five minutes. Then, I told him that cockiness would get him nowhere in life. He had a temper beforehand, so I shouldn't have taunted him. I was mad, too."

"What did you do?" Reid asked.

"I slapped him after he said something particularly cruel," Rori frowned as she remembered what Dan had told her. "He retaliated by punching me in the ribs. He tried to kick me but his dad was there, so it didn't go farther than that. My mom had to take me to the hospital because I was having trouble breathing."

"So you stopped playing chess," Reid said. Well that was one way to turn someone away from the game.

Rori shrugged and smiled. "I started to focus on music and the people who shared an interest in sounds and pitch."

Reid put the board away. He liked classical music. "What's your favorite classical piece? I like Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata"."

Rori looked up in thought as she tried to think of her absolute favorite. "'Clair de Lune' easily, but I like Hoedown from Copland's "Rodeo" a lot too. I played that for my senior year, I was a cellist. It was a lot of fun."

Rossi came back into the BAU and found three of his teammate talking casually with Rori. He walked over, but kept a safe distance as he listened. Rori had a small smile on her lips as she chatted animatedly.

"Tonight the D.C Youth Orchestra is going to be performing famous movie and video game compositions. I'm going to go with some friends and then spend the night at their house like I normally do when I hang out with them."

Morgan leaned back in his seat and put his hands behind his head. "You must really like music." Didn't her aunt mention writing music?

"I don't find things like math and science interesting. I find music and languages hold my attention more because they're fun to me. I mean, I still like learning, so I take the advanced sciences and math courses… I just really like sounds. When it comes to using those skills, I excel in them."

Reid frowned as he twirled a pen with his fingers. "But math and science are fun."

"Only Physics and Chemistry labs are fun. Like flaming pumpkins and making a boat out of cardboard." Rori stated firmly. She knew what interested her, and most things were really boring.

"Does that work? The cardboard boat thing?" Morgan asked raising an eyebrow.

Both Rori and Reid nodded. It was a fun experiment. Rori looked at Morgan and set the white king on Reid's desk. "What you do is use Duct tape on the edges. That way water can't get in. Unfortunately, it doesn't last very long. Maybe once for a short distance. We had races in school."

Emily looked at Reid and smiled. "You should show her some of your Physics magic."

Rori looked confused. "Physics Magic?" she asked looking at the female agent.

Dave decided to jump in before Reid started a lengthy explanation. "Rori?" he asked carefully.

Rori shot up in her chair and looked at the older man in shock, and a little bit of fear. "Yes…" she let her voice trail off. After all she was looking at the man who was supposedly her father.

Dave nodded to his open office door. "Can you come to my office?" he asked sincerely.

Rori looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding car as her eyes widened and her body tensed up. After a minute of just staring at the senior FBI agent, she nodded slowly and grabbed her bag off of the floor. She followed Dave as she kept her head bent low and eyes on the floor.

"A real kid genius," Morgan shook his head as he leaned back in his seat once more. "She should come here more often. It was nice to see Reid lose for once. Even if she isn't Rossi's kid, she's kind of interesting."

"Rossi has a kid?" Garcia asked as she walked over with a large cup of tea. She was in a black and pink hounds tooth vest and white t-shirt. She gazed at her favorite agent over her pair of bright pink glasses.

"Says the aunt of the seventeen-year-old in his office right now," Prentiss said as she turned back to her desk to start on her large stack of files.

Garcia grabbed the seat that Rori had just been sitting in and pulled it over to her so that she could sit. Excitement was written all over her face as she mentally went over the list of scandals related to the Great David Rossi. "Oh, tell me all about her," she said as a Cheshire grin graced her lips.

0o0o0o0

Rori shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she sat in the quiet office of David Rossi. Dave moved from his own desk chair to the seat next to the teen. He thought that this would somehow make her more comfortable. He studied the girl's features, and knew that she was Christine's child for sure. "You know, you look like her," he said breaking the silence.

"I know, Kate tells me that all the time. Mom said I got my sarcastic wit from you though," Rori shrugged as she looked at her hands. She was really uncomfortable physically with the way she was seated. "Well, technically she just said 'you get your wit from your dad.'"

Rossi's lips twitched slightly. So Christine had mentioned him to her. That was good. "What I don't understand is why she never told me?"

Rori picked at her long nails and looked up slightly. "I don't have an answer to that. Every time I asked about she found another topic." The teen looked back down and started to crack her knuckles.

"So, you really like music?" Dave asked. He had to do better than this if he was going to get the girl talking.

Rori nodded. "I don't like rap though. Mom said it should have been called crap."

Dave nodded. He didn't understand the music either. He was a jazz kind of guy. Then again that was his age of music. "Are you thinking of studying music?"

"Nope," Rori shook her head. "I just really like listening and playing music. I don't see why I have to make something more out of it. Besides I run the risk of it becoming like a job, and that would take the fun from it," she added.

"You're going to Georgetown in the fall?" Dave really wished that she would look at him. It was like he was having a conversation with a wall.

Rori looked up again. "Look, I've told Kate many times. I can live in a dorm. I don't know why she worries so much. Ever since mom died, all she's done is worry. She didn't have to come here demanding that you take care of me. I mean I could understand it if I was like twelve, but I turn eighteen in February."

Dave sighed and looked at the ceiling as he pleaded with God to give him the mental strength to deal with this teen. "Can we just talk?" he asked tiredly. Already it had been a long day. "Do you know why Kate got mad?"

"No," Rori mumbled, but she could guess any number of situations that could set Kate over the edge.

"It's because my lawyer would demand a DNA test just to be sure. I know- knew your mom. She wasn't the kind of person capable of being unfaithful," Rossi stated. "You're mom never told me because she didn't want me to try and make an impossible situation work."

Rori looked at the ground. "I think she still loved you. She would always walk around the house and sigh. I don't think I ever saw her go on a date," Rori told him. She smiled sadly as she thought about her mom. "She told me that she never dated because she didn't want anything happening to me. Just in case the guy she was with was a total ass."

Dave leaned back in his chair. "But, she never once talked about me?"

Rori shook her head. "No." she answered. "It didn't stop me from asking though."

Rossi mimicked the teen as he shook his own head. How could you not talk about your child's father? Aren't there school projects where you look at family history and other things that are related to the parents? How did she explain an absent father at parent/teacher conferences? It was enough to make his Italian blood boil. He let out a long sigh.

"You know, I find people often shake their head and sigh around me," Rori observed. She lifted her head up. "Is it something that I'm doing?"

Rossi looked at her in surprise. "No," he replied. This matter had to be settled. "Rori, would you object to a DNA test?"

Rori puffed up her cheeks and blew out a slow breath as she thought about his request. "Would they have to draw blood?" she asked warily.

"A cheek swab works just as well," Rossi explained. He watched as Rori thought quietly.

She looked at the ceiling as she slouched in her chair. "I don't want you to be my dad if you're going to view me as some sort of unforeseen burden. Kate already does, and it's a crappy way of living," she said somewhat coldly. "I don't object to a DNA test, but the only question that matters to me is not 'Are you my dad?', but 'Do you want to be my dad?'" she finished.

Rossi just stared at the girl and blinked. Those were pretty profound words coming from a seventeen-year-old. She stood up suddenly and grabbed her bag before leaving the confines of the office. She hopped off the stairs and looked over at the rest of Dave's team. "Good bye Dr. Reid, Agent Morgan, Agent Prentiss. Thanks for the game doctor."

Rori was about to open the BAU doors when Dave called her name from his office. She turned and looked at him with hope in her eyes. She really did want a dad. "Yes," he spoke.

Rori smiled widely before leaving the building.

0o0o0o0

Dave sat next to Hotch in a quiet bar. "I don't understand how someone could keep a secret like that," Dave stated as he looked at a whisky glass. He tipped the glass slightly and watched the amber liquid swish around the crystal glass.

"Chris left you because of the job," Hotch said as he took a swig from a bottle of beer. "She didn't want you to quit being an FBI agent; she just didn't want to be your wife."

"When did the job become more important than family?" Dave asked hurt by his ex's long-kept secret. He took a sip of his drink before he looked at Hotch.

Having been in a similar situation to his friend and fellow agent, Hotch had asked himself that more than once. He had given up a chance for him and Haley when he chose to stay at the BAU. It was a decision he both regretted and cherished. The BAU now helped him with his son, and he doubted that there would be a similar connection with a different team, but he lost the love of his life because of the job.

"Dave, regardless of Chris' past decisions, you now have the chance to make something out this," Hotch said suddenly. "You know that the BAU will support whatever you do, and will help you with anything."

Dave nodded. They were family, and nobody was going to change that. It seemed like Rori would become a part of that family if she and Dave could figure something out. Anything that would allow him the chance to be a part of his daughter's life. A part of his mind said 'What if she's not your daughter, then what?', but the senior agent ignored it. His gut told him otherwise.

"She looks like Christine," Hotch said.

Dave nodded. "I saw it too. The eyes are different though. Chris' were blue not green."

"She seems like a good kid," Hotch told his friend. He was mentally hoping that Dave would pick up his signals to take the girl in. Where else would she go?

Dave nodded again. "I'm not sure what to do," he spoke as he finished off his glass.

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