A/N: Sorry this is a tad on the late side as will be my other stories. I got a new computer which doesn't use Microsoft Works which is what I have been using, but Microsoft Word instead, and I am learning how to use it. So please bear with me as I learn. Thanks.
Chapter 9-Epilogue
The bad news came in May of that same year; two months after Penelope Garcia left the team. Section Chief Erin Strauss decided not to deliver the news by telephone, but in person. She contacted Unit Chief, Daniel Siebert, and requested he and his entire team, come to the conference room, and that she would be joining them. After hanging up, Strauss thought about what had to be done. She let out a deep breath. What was about to happen, never would happen, if Aaron Hotchner and his team were still here. Slowly, she got to her feet and left her office, heading to the elevators.
When she reached the BAU, she walked into the conference room. Seated around the table waiting patiently were the members of the new team A, and their new tech analyst, Kayla Morris who was dressed according to the dress code.
"Good, you're all here," Strauss said looking around, her face unreadable. Letting out a deep breath, she stood at the head of the table between the seated Siebert and Granger. "You're all probably wondering why I called this meeting. I have an announcement to make." She paused to arrange her words. "I know all of you heard rumors of changes coming due to financial cutbacks in the bureau. I'm here to tell you the rumors are true. There are cutbacks being made, and the BAU is not excluded from these cutbacks."
"How bad?" asked Siebert looking up at his boss. Strauss glanced at him.
"Bad," she replied. "We are losing one entire team, and I'm afraid team A has been chosen to be disbanded due to the cutbacks." She looked around at the now shocked faces all looking at her.
"What's going to happen to all of us, ma'am?" asked Gateway.
"I want each of you to give me, in writing, your choices of which departments you'd like to be reassigned. And should there be any openings, you will have first choice. Miss Morris, you will stay the technical analyst, as other BAU teams will need your ability."
"Yes, ma'am," Kayla replied with a slight smile. "Thank you, ma'am."
"You're welcome, Miss Morris." Strauss glanced around at the others. "Agent Siebert, your options are somewhat limited as not many Supervisory positions are available."
"I understand, ma'am," Siebert replied. "Ma'am, may I ask a question?"
"Of course."
"Ma'am, is this team being disbanded because we haven't been as successful as Agent Hotchner's team was when they were here?" He didn't want to ask this question, but he suspected it was a factor behind the decision.
Strauss kept her emotions in check. "I won't lie to you, Agent Siebert. But your reduction in the success rate of team A did play a part in the decision. Agent Hotchner's team had a ninety-eight percent success rate with their cases. Your team's success rate barely cleared ninety percent. Now I realize your team hasn't been together but a few months, and so does the Director. But he's looking at other things as well."
"Such as, ma'am?" asked Waring.
"To be perfectly honest, Doctor Waring, and this is no slight on this team. But the new team A lacks a cohesiveness."
Siebert arched both eyebrows. "Cohesiveness? You mean we're not functioning like the previous A team, don't you? I understand Agent Hotchner felt his team was his family, but I didn't agree with his assessment. A team is nothing more than a group of people working together on their job. Anything other than that and, in my opinion, would be counter-productive."
"Call it what you like," Strauss told him. "But it worked with Agent Hotchner's team. And whether they considered themselves a family or not, one can't deny their success. Agent Hotchner motivated his team and got them to accomplish things nobody thought possible. But you personally, and I do not mean this in a negative way whatsoever, have not been able to motivate this team in the same way. I had hoped you would, and that this team would at least match the success rate of Agent Hotchner's team. But it hasn't happened. And the Director feels since a team has to be dissolved, it should be yours. I am so, so sorry."
Siebert let out a deep breath, but remained silent as did the others.
And so it began. In August of that same year, the A team was broken up and its members reassigned to other areas, including Agent Siebert. And with the remaining BAU teams, none of them, try as they might, accomplished what Aaron Hotchner and his team accomplished. It was only then that Strauss realized what she had lost when Hotchner's team broke up months ago. They had lost the most elite group of agents and profilers in the bureau. And the beginning of the end started with the case in Rhode Island.
When Hotchner and his team broke up, it truly was the day it all ended.
The End
