A/N: I've been waiting a long time to write this. ;) Yet, I will tell you; this chapter will make the most sense if you are really good at name recognition. You'll understand why its included.

And for the record, some of this does not fit into the timeline of The Slave of Duty. I'm fiddling again.

Chapter 14

The team made it through Haley's wake and funeral. Abbey and Matt had proved huge once again to Hotch, helping with Jack through that trying time. And Hotch, following Matt's advice, had officially put in for his leave of absence, which Strauss quickly approved.

They all gathered to lay Haley to rest in the cemetery. Matt and Dave in the lead, followed by Morgan and Kevin, with Will and Brian Anderson, Reid walking alongside them, still using his cane, gently set her casket down. Matt and Dave took the most time, lovingly rubbing the corners of her casket. They knew her sacrifice.

As they all sat around after the graveside service, JJ and Morgan's cells pinged. They noticed Matt with Abbey, standing with Dave and Hotch, got the same call. They all fumed at the interruption, even after JJ had pointed out that no other teams were available. Matt, his Irish temper, and still running on a few hours of sleep a night, worrying about his friend and partner, silently seethed at the Section Chief.

They all headed out the door to do their jobs. On a Thursday night, which would be a Friday by the time they got there.

-00CM-

Erin Strauss boldly walked through the doors of the J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington, DC; the headquarters for FBI command on Monday morning. Inwardly smiling to herself, she boarded an elevator to the 14th floor. The floor the Director's office was on.

When the elevator reached her stop, she walked off, with a bit of confidence in her step. She made her way down the marble floor to the Director's office. She entered and looked at the secretary behind the desk. "I'm Section Chief Erin Strauss here to see the Director for our ten o'clock appointment." She showed her credentials.

The secretary, after taking a good, long look at them, said, "Good morning Chief Strauss." The secretary looked at her computer screen to check the Director's appointments. "He should just be finishing up with his nine o'clock appointment. I'll let him know you are here. Please take a seat," the secretary said, waving at the waiting room. "Please, ma'am, make yourself at home to the coffee," she said, waving the brewing station.

Strauss nodded her thanks, poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down. She patiently waited her turn in the big man's office. Ten minutes later, she snuck a peek at her watch. It was past ten. But she wouldn't say a thing. She was meeting with the Director himself. It would be on his schedule, not hers.

Three minutes later, the Director's door swung open. Strauss looked up to see the Director escorting Assistant Director McLaughlin out of this office. "Tom," he said, shaking the Assistant Director's hand, "I really appreciate the update. Thank you. I'll keep you in the loop."

Assistant Director McLaughlin, whom Erin Strauss knew was one of the top men in the Director's chain of command nodded at her and headed out the door. The Director looked at her. "Chief Strauss, please come in," he said, extending his right hand to shake hers. She confidently walked into his office, accepting the handshake.

He motioned for her to sit down across from him at his conference table. The exchanged a bit of small talk.

"Chief Strauss, how is the main BAU team, given what happened last week?"

"They are currently in the office, having assisted the Nashville PD with a case over the weekend."

"How are they handling Haley's death?" Director Mueller and his wife were in attendance at her funeral.

"They're all still hurting. Agent Taylor and his wife have been a huge support to Agent Hotchner and his son."

"That's a given. SAC Hotchner selected an excellent AUC and I know they have grown close personally." He shrugged. "They're fathers, about the same age with kids the same age; it's really a no brainer." Strauss nodded her agreement.

"However, Unit Chief Strauss, I feel the Bureau should do everything that we can to support SAC Hotchner during this time."

"I agree Mr. Director; he is now a single father, trying to raise his son. Personally, I don't know how he's going to do it, given the responsibilities of his job."

Director Mueller pulled out a file. "He's record is pretty clean. And SAC Hotchner has done excellent work with a very demanding job." He paused. "And he stepped down to keep his team together. That tells me a lot. He cares about the welfare of his team above his career. That speaks volumes to me." Erin Strauss looked at her skirt and pulled the hem to straighten it a bit.

"Chief Strauss, I believe I can work out something with Bureau HR to give him an out. He has to take of his son."

Strauss smiled at the Director. "I agree; and I appreciate you personally getting involved to help a member of my Unit."

"And once I can put the package together, I'd like you to present him to him. Personally; at his home. This is not a time for him to be away from his son."

"I agree Mr. Director."

"However, Chief Strauss, the option you present to him is an option only. It will be his decision, not yours. And you will present it as that; and that only."

Strauss looked at him. "I've been doing some digging Chief Strauss. The only ding in SAC Hotchner's record is there by you. And I've read the rest of the reports of the Agents involved in the case. What you suspended SAC Hotchner for was not his call."

"With add due respect sir, he was the SAC at the time," Strauss defended.

Director Mueller beaded a deep look into her eye. "Chief Straus, did you really read the team's reports?" She looked at him. Director Mueller pulled out another file, showing it to her. "This is Agent Morgan's report; 'we acted on the direction of Senior Profiler Gideon. The decision was his, not SAC Hotchner's'."

He looked at Strauss and pulled another file. "This is AUC Taylor's assessment file. 'Senior Profiler Gideon, while welcomed back into the Unit, and much needed, does not accept the chain of command. That is what caused this situation. His actions were not approved by SAC Hotchner. Yet with the dynamics of SSA Gideon's return to the team, it is accepted. I've tried to tell SAC Hotchner that is unacceptable. Yet I understand his resistance to raise the issue, given Agent Gideon's history with the Unit. However, as a former Marine, I believe the chain of command is sacrosanct. Agent Gideon, by refusing to accept that he is no longer in charge has put a huge burden on this team. A true team can only answer to one voice. Agent Gideon has fractured this team. In the end, they had to follow his wishes, instead of the Unit Chief'. That's a pretty telling report Chief Strauss; and from the second in command."

"I read it sir; I read them all. My assessment was different," Strauss defended.

Director Mueller shook his head. "No, Chief Strauss. You saw that as an opportunity to take out a perceived rival; specifically SAC Hotchner." He opened another file. "You were the only one in the chain of command that challenged SAC Hotchner's recommendation for Agent Taylor to join the Unit as AUC, which I ordered the position to be developed; it was needed."

"Sir, I agreed with you that the position needed to be part of the Unit."

"But you didn't support Agent Taylor getting the job? I say again. You are the only person that did not support SAC Hotchner's recommendation." He shook his head. "But that was just another person in your chain of command that was a threat; which we both know, you perceived SAC Hotchner to be."

Strauss had to think quickly. She didn't see this coming. "I didn't feel Agent Taylor was a good mesh into the Unit."

Director Mueller dug through some files, and pulled out another one. He opened it. "This is the report I received from SAC Hotchner in his recommendation for the new position in the BAU. 'In short sir, I do not believe there is a more qualified candidate in the Bureau than Agent Taylor. And what I most appreciate is his willingness to come in the door, learn and be a part of this team'. Chief Strauss, did you hear the key word?" She looked at him. "Team," he simply said.

"Chief Strauss, it is my feeling that the only thing you are worrying about is you. That is not the way a Section Chief operates; at least not in my command." He looked her directly in the eye. "You let the SAC of the BAU take a fall for Jason Gideon's actions, when team reports said he didn't respect the chain of command and made his own decision; which ultimately, led to him leaving the Bureau. You dinged SAC Hotchner's record when the team reports tell an entirely different story." He rose out of his chair and looked her in the eye. Strauss fidgeted in her chair; this is not how she envisioned this meeting going.

"Unit Chief Strauss, I will not put up with that. You, Chief Strauss, have the best damn team the Bureau has to offer in your command. Erin, I get you. You want to do the Bureau right; and I respect that. However, in doing so, you are playing with other agent's careers so there is no obstacle to you moving upward, and I won't accept that. And if I may, let me offer you some advice; you are not going to move up when you play career-gaining games with the best goddamn Unit in the Bureau." Strauss swallowed his words in.

"Chief Strauss, I meant what I said. You have the best team the Bureau has to offer in your command. Yet, because of your ambitions, which I understand, with your perceived ambitions of SAC Hotchner, you've basically, alone, have tried to undermine that team. And your latest actions with your 'inquisition' of the team after the Foyet situation, proves that. All you really needed to do was read their reports; very carefully. Like a Section Chief should. Yet, you went after them all."

Strauss pushed a wrinkle out of her skirt and then looked at Director Mueller. "I saw an Agent that made a blood bath in that dining room."

"And yet your subsequent report, as well as the review committee, saw an Agent, a father, protecting his son." He looked Strauss in the eye.

"Erin, how can I make you understand? There are Section Chiefs that would give an arm and a leg to have the BAU in their command. They take on the worst of the worst, day in and day out. And by all the reports I see, they are one the most cohesive, rock solid Unit in the company. They go out, leaving their families behind, and chase the worst people on the planet. Erin, I question how they sleep at night. But a bigger question is this: as their Section Chief, why don't you question that as well?"

Erin Strauss just looked at him. She had no answers. "Erin, the Bureau needs this team. You already have my orders on how you will approach SAC Hotchner with a possible retirement. I expect you to follow them."

He stared at her. "However, in the end, I know, in my heart of hearts, that SAC Hotchner will turn the deal down. Somehow, some way, he'll make it work with his son. They chase monsters Erin. And fathers like to tell their kids that they can make the monsters go away. That will be why SAC Hotchner will come back. And take over his team again. All my reports, including Agent Morgan's say 'acting Unit Chief' concerning him. Yours are the only ones that don't. They are a team; and the best damn team we send out into the field to work with local LEO's. That's why this team is so valuable to the Bureau. You know the politics Erin; hell, you've got them down. But you don't understand." He let those words sink in.

"AUC Taylor has taken more than one bullet in his Kevlar for the team. That team; the team they are; will not back down; because they are a family. Hell, when you are chasing the monsters they do, how can they not be a family? They all have to live with the same nightmares. In the end, they are really protecting their own. They are protecting their families. First off, the families that some of them leave like Agent Jareau, with a toddler. Hell, AUC Taylor has three kids that he's willing to leave fatherless to save members of his team? That doesn't resound with you Erin?" Matt's pounding of her about being a parent resonated through her mind.

He looked at Strauss. "I highly suggest Section Chief Strauss you get some buy-in on that. Instead of looking to take them down, from now on, I fully expect you to support them. Because Section Chief Strauss, if you don't, I'll find a Section Chief that can."

Strauss was shocked that her command was in jeopardy. It rattled in her mind and in her bones. The confidence she walked in the door with had quickly faded to doubt and uncertainty. "I'll forward what HR comes up with to you by the end of the day Chief Strauss. Please see SAC Hotchner tomorrow. And I will expect a detailed follow-up report. That is all Chief Strauss. Thank you for making the trip here," he said. The Director moved to sit down behind his desk.

Section Chief Erin Strauss rose from her chair and left the Director's Office stunned and shaken.

###

A/N: HR is Human Resources, the department that handles personnel issues.