The State of NY vs. Mr. Randal Jackson and Action Brokerage trial was set to start at 1:00pm on Tuesday, April 21st. The defense had unsuccessfully tried to have all of the charges dropped stating that there were rumors that the FBI had tampered with the evidence. The judge denied the claim saying that trials were based on fact, not rumor and the jury would decide. But the judge also warned the prosecution that it would not look fondly on anyone found interfering with the chain of evidence.

The judge used Tuesday to give complete instructions to the jury and to go over the charges against the Defendant. All day Wednesday was allotted to the opening statements from both parties. The prosecution's first witnesses were not called until Thursday morning. To quickly end the threat of a mistrial they chose to start the trial with the rumors of evidence tampering. Rual Sanchez was the first witness called and he was questioned for most of the day, first on the evidence and his office report that was logged in as court exhibits and next on his involvement in the evidence tampering. This trial was not about the kidnapping so most of the details were left out, but enough to show why he did it and not eliminate the rest of the evidence.

Hotch and Reid were both scheduled Friday morning as the BAU witnesses to testify on their involvement in the case. Again the kidnapping was only a small part of the testimony on the financial trail of Action Brokerage. Each detailed how they had been assigned the task and how they had found out the defendant was involved in the evidence tampering. They also testified that they had brought in an outside FA to make sure that everything was done correctly.

The defense tried to have all of the testimonies thrown out or a new trial that did not allow the mention of the evidence tampering, but the judge denied it. With all of the media attention on the FBI tampering and the fact that a BAU team had reviewed the evidence, the judge felt it would need to be addressed in a future trail also and allowed the trial to continue. He also knew that because another certified FA had studied all of the evidence after it had been sent to the BAU, there was no way to keep out that she only became involved because of the evidence tampering rumors.

Chelsea was called in to testify on Friday afternoon. Hotch gave Reid the rest of the day off to attend with her, but he was on call if a case were to come in. Because of her personal relationship with Reid, the attorney decided to bring that out in the trial as to not look like he was hiding something. So far the trial had consisted of clearing up rumors, proving an unharmed evidence chain and why a Behavioral Analysis Unit was involved in evidence research.

After Chelsea was sworn in and asked her name and occupation, he jumped right into questioning her personal life. "Ms. Lozano, you were brought into analyze this case because of your personal relationship with BAU member Dr. Spencer Reid. Is that correct?"

Even though Chelsea knew this was the tactic that they had planned on taking, it was still unnerving to have her personal life become part of a public court transcript. She was sure that Spencer held the same feelings, but looking at him he just gave her an encouraging smile so she nodded to the attorney and answered the question just like they had practiced. "Yes, I have been dating Dr. Reid since January and that is how he knew that I was a FA. But my relationship with him does not have anything to do with my qualifications or my ability to do this job. I have worked on several cases for the FBI in the past and testified in two of them. You will find that I have an excellent reputation and although Dr. Reid recommended me, Agent Hotchner was officially the person that brought me in."

After that part was out of the way, Chelsea described everything that had happened starting with her figuring out the books she was looking at were fake. She gave her official report on the paper trail that showed how Mr. Jackson and the Action Brokerage had conned their clients. Her report was shorter, only containing 5 years of information but was nearly identical to the report Sanchez had given in his testimony. She finished testifying just before the judge called a recess for the weekend. She was relieved that she had finished and had given all of the details clearly and accurately. The attorney had questioned her thoroughly and made sure any term she used was defined in simple language for the jury. Now that Hotch, Spencer and she had finished testifying, it was over unless the defense decided to cross-examine them at a later date. Spencer took her to dinner and that night was the first relaxing time they have had together since the BAU had received the case.

Monday morning several FBI employees from the NY office were called to testify on the evidence and by Tuesday the prosecutors started calling the victims of Mr. Jackson's brokerage account. There were nearly 2,500 clients that were allegedly swindled out of their savings. Although all of them had been deposed, there were 15 scheduled to testify on Tuesday and an additional 8 on Wednesday morning. On Wednesday afternoon, the prosecutor brought a SEC employee to testify about the complaints that had been received since the case had started. The attorney addressed the court and said that he did not want to waste the time of everyone to hear from all 2,457 alleged victims, he would be placing all of the depositions in evidence and reserved the right to call any of them at a later date if deemed necessary.

As the financial trial against Mr. Jackson continued in DC, New York prosecutors were still quietly piecing together the kidnapping, evidence tampering and attempted murder charges for Randal Jackson. Mr. Jackson had hired another set of lawyers to help defend himself on that case although official charges had not been brought up yet so no trial date was set. Everyone was sure that Rossi, Morgan and Prentiss would be called for the trial when charges were filed, but many thought once Mr. Jackson was behind bars for the financial crimes, he would accept some sort of plea bargain for that case.

Spencer was relieved that Chelsea would not be mentioned at all in the kidnapping and attempted murder trials, but it was still likely she would need to go to NY and testify in several other trials. Other Action Brokerage employees that were involved in the fraud schemes were headed to trial later this summer and much of the evidence that Chelsea and the BAU had studied could be used in those cases also.

#

When Spencer was not away on a case, he and Chelsea continued to go out on many types of dates. They went out to dinner, movies, bookstores, antique shops and a local pub that had live jazz music. They had been to the rifle club twice for brunch and had gone for a walk and relaxed in conversation on what she called "their bench".

The Randal Jackson trial continued for more three weeks and the jury deliberated for four days before he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years for the embezzlement and investment fraud.

During the three weeks while the trial continued the BAU mostly worked on profiles from Quantico. They were sent on a few cases out of town. The first case was in Cherry Hill, NJ searching for a pedophile that had killed three young boys. Hotch and Reid were still under oath as witnesses on the trial and could be pulled in to testify again at any time, but the court had the information that they were working a case in New Jersey and could be flown back in a few hours if needed.

While working the pedophile case, Emily had been the one to figure out that the brother of the third and last victim had killed him and felt no remorse. Once they had that information, they realized that the lead detective had covered up the murder and had placed evidence to make it look like the pedophile killed all three boys.

When they arrived home Friday night from New Jersey, Chelsea met Spencer, Morgan and Emily for dinner. Chelsea asked her normal questions about saving anyone and how many past victims' families now had closure. But before the meal came, Morgan and Emily had described the entire case. Chelsea could see that all three of them were visibly shaken, but Morgan was the hardest hit. After spending many years in the Chicago PD, he took it personally that a peace officer would try to cover up a murder, especially of a child.

Morgan was Spencer's closest friend. He had become like a brother to Spencer over the years and was excited to get to know the girl that had obviously won Spencer's heart. Emily immediately liked Chelsea the first time they met. Emily had moved around so much as a child didn't have a lot of close friends outside of the team and she had started to feel close to Chelsea quickly. Morgan also really liked Chelsea and was glad to see how relaxed and comfortable Reid was at dinner. He had watched them together while working and she had easily fit in with everyone on the team, but it wasn't a social situation. They were all focused on the case. Seeing him casually walk with his arm around her waist, open both the car and restaurant doors for her, and pull out her chair all while carrying on a conversation with the group showed him how at ease Reid was with her.

When they had finished talking about the case, Emily asked Chelsea "JJ and I are going to lunch and out shopping tomorrow, why don't you join us?"

Looking at Spencer for approval, "That sounds like fun." Spencer nodded and mentioned he had a lot of work to do on an article he was working on and thought that sounded like a great idea.

#

The next day Emily came by to pick up Chelsea at noon. Spencer was at her place when she showed up, but was headed out.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry, Reid?" Emily asked.

"Will called this morning to see if I wanted to come by and help watch my Godson" Reid replied. "I know that it was JJ that suggested it. She is hoping that after you all interrogate Chelsea for personal information that Will will be able to get a few things out of me." He continued smiling.

"What do you mean 'interrogate' me?" Chelsea asked concerned.

"I don't like to profile my team, but they are going to ask you ALL kinds of personal questions about our relationship today and they are hoping that Will will be able to get something more out of me." Spencer laughed.

Chelsea looked a bit confused and started to reply, before Emily cut her off talking directly to Reid "So you have a plan to stop the inquisition?"

"Yep, I'm going to come right out and tell him that I know JJ put him up to finding out information about Chelsea and me. He'll reluctantly agree and I'll give him something to make JJ happy and then he and I can call a few of his friends and play poker all afternoon." He said with a smirk.

Emily and Chelsea both started laughing. "So you had JJ figured out all along." Emily joked. "How long until you let Will know you are in on it?"

"Not long, we don't have that long if I want to win some money from the guys." Spencer joked, "Plus I really do want to spend some time with Henry. He's growing so fast."

Emily had not seen this side of Reid before and couldn't help laughing. Chelsea seemed to get over her shock about the whole situation and asked Spencer softly, "What exactly are you going to tell Will about us?"

"Don't worry, nothing personal. Probably just more about how we met and how worried I was before I called you." Spencer said has he hugged her. He kissed her good-bye and said, "Good luck with these ladies. They are going to ask you tons of questions so be prepared." He watched her worried face and said "Relax, you are going to be fine. They really just want to get to know you because you are special to me," and with that he said bye to Emily and left.

Chelsea was still trying to make sense of everything that happened when Emily asked for a tour of her apartment. "I love the view!" She exclaimed as she walked towards Chelsea's kitchen.

Chelsea showed her the whole apartment and Emily asked, "So we all what to know. How is the genius," nodding towards the bed "you know" pause "in bed?"

Chelsea stood there with her mouth open. "Really?" When she didn't receive any response other than a smile and a nod, she answered truthfully, "Genius!" Emily bent over laughing saying something that sounded like 'Good to know' around her laughs.

After they finished the quick tour, Emily said, "OK, time to go. The BAU ladies club is almost in session," walking towards the door.

"BAU Ladies Club?" Chelsea asked.

"That's what Garcia wants to call us. Now that there are four women. She didn't think three made a club."

"Garcia thinks I'm a member of the BAU Ladies Club?" still a little shocked everything that had happened in the last 30 minutes.

"Of course. You are the girlfriend of a BAU member, plus you helped us solve a case. You are officially a member of the BAU Ladies Club."

Chelsea nodded. She didn't know what to say. She grabbed her purse and was ready to leave not sure what to expect for the rest of the day

Lunch went smoothly and after Emily filled them in on Chelsea's "Genius" comment while Chelsea blushed a deep red, they didn't press her for many personal details. They asked her to describe their first date and she obliged by telling them how shy Spencer had been and how her grandfather had tricked him into asking her out. Smiling at the memory she told them about their first Sunday brunch at the rifle club and that they had spent the entire day together. After that, the four of them talked about family, friends and work and just enjoyed the afternoon.

While shopping, JJ picked up a few items for Henry, but mostly they all window-shopped and laughed at some of the fashion trends featured in the store windows. They all made Chelsea feel very welcome and were very vocal that they were happy for both her and Spencer.

Author's Note: Curious what people thought of the case. Was it too long? I wanted Chelsea to really be needed and helpful. I thought it would be a fun way for her to meet and interact with all of the team, but the case seemed to have a life of its own and took 5 chapters to complete. That was not what I expected when I started to write it.

The reason I really wanted to do this story, other than I think Spencer deserves someone special in his live is coming in the next few chapters. I hated the end of Amplification. No one seemed to care that Spencer almost died and was in the hospital. I fixed that. :)