Chapter One: Three Rules
When Persephone Elara Ambrose was a kid growing up in the South East of England, she learnt three very important rules. Rules she promised herself she would never forget, and Persephone never broke her promises. Rules were important. They stopped you from getting too attached and they reminded you of how to behave. They kept you safe. Rules, Persephone thought were not made to be broken. Thought it seemed plenty of people disagreed. Those people were stupid. Rules were important. Persephone's rules were as follows:
1. Never trust without due course
2. Always have the upper hand
3. Family is what you make it and when you do, protect it at all costs.
She thought about these rules as she drove into the FBI car park. When she heard about an opening on the legendary BAU team, she had immediately applied though she hadn't thought she'd hear back. She was curious as to what they would be like. The BAU were well known for their skills through several were sceptical about the reliability of behavioural science. Persephone had heard back, however. So, after informing her boss she needed a few days, she flew to Quantico and checked into a hotel offering a room for a decent price.
She had been working for Interpol practically her whole working life, save for a few years she spent working for the Special Branch of New Scotland Yard back when she lived in London. When she transferred to the American office, she thought it would be a chance to work with the FBI, but she never imagined she'd have the chance to work for them. She'd never really gelled with her Interpol team and her profiling skills were not used that often nor was it valued.
She remembered how her boss had reacted when he had discovered. He had not been happy, to say the least.
"Ambrose!" Agent Daniels called from his office. He didn't seem very happy. Persephone wondered what exactly she had done to be faced with her boss' ire. Well whatever it was, she would have to go and find out. Bradley Daniels was not to sort of man you kept waiting for.
"Ohhh! You're in trouble!" Agent Mason goaded, drawing out every syllable.
"Bugger off Mason!" Persephone growled, pushing the man's chair over with her foot and smiling as he crashed to the floor with a surprised yelp.
Persephone went to her boss' office and knocked on the door. Once she heard the familiar bark of Daniel's bid to enter, she opened the door. Agent Daniels fixed her with a glare that could have frightened a Dalek.
"Sir?" She prompted when the man didn't speak.
"I hear you're leaving us?" The man responded.
"I beg your pardon?" Persephone questioned. She didn't know what he was speaking about.
"You applied to join the BAU. Did you not?" He demanded.
Oh. That was what this was about. Agent Daniels had a very poor opinion on the BAU. It has been why she had not approached him for a reference and instead went to speak to Agent Turner or 'Disco' as he was known to the majority. Disco was the section director and had great respect for behavioural analysis. He had been the reason for her appointment to Interpol in the first place.
"Yes sir, I did." Persephone agreed with a surprising amount of confidence.
The man roared with anger and slapped his hand over his desk. Being the dick like Agent Daniels was, he took pleasure in the flinch his behaviour elicited from Persephone.
"How dare you?! Where is your sense of loyalty?! And for a place like the BAU! You know I've always had my doubts about you Ambrose. Do you know what your problem is? You-"
The door swung open. Agent Daniels glared as what about to snap at the person who dared to interrupt him when he saw who it was. Agent Turner was his boss. He could interrupt however much he wanted. That was the perk of being a superior.
"That is quite enough Agent Daniels!" Turner scolded. He liked to be a friendly boss; someone people could approach freely. That did not mean though, that he couldn't be a formidable one if the job required it. And this was one such time.
"Agent Ambrose has been invited to interview for a place on one of the most prestigious branches of the FBI. Your opinion is not required. So, you will join me in congratulating Agent Ambrose and wishing her luck for her interview."
"Sir, the BAU…"
He got no further.
"I am well aware of your feeling towards the BAU Daniels, but I do not care. If I hear to speaking to Agent Ambrose -or anyone else for that matter- like that again, and I'll fire you. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Now, bind your own business and let Agent Ambrose get back to work. I am sure you have plenty to be getting on with yourself, Daniels."
Persephone approached Turner again at the end of the day. He smiled at her warmly. She liked Agent Turner. He was always kind to her and even when he had to reprimand her he did so without aggression. She would be sorry to leave him if she got picked for the BAU.
"Persephone! What can I do for you?" He asked.
"I wanted to thank you, sir, for standing up for me earlier."
"There's no need to thank me, Persephone. I was just doing the right thing. I wish you luck though I will be sorry to see you go."
Persephone smiled gratefully. It was nice to be wanted but she really wanted the BAU job. She never really fit in at Interpol. The people were pleasant enough true, but they weren't close to her. Apart from Disco, she wasn't sorry to leave any of them. They didn't have that connection. She didn't trust them. Trust was a deadly and dangerous game that she refused to play unless she had to.
"Thank you, sir."
"I guess I'm not going to get you to stop calling me sir before you leave. Am I?" Disco guessed. He'd been trying to call him Disco or Turner at the very least, for years but it had not worked. Persephone was a formal the day he met her.
"No sir, though I might not get the job."
"You will. I can feel it in my bones." Turner replied. He was certain that Hotchner would indeed recognise the skills that Persephone had. He had written an outstanding recommendation to attest to her skills. He knew Agent Hotchner was too scrupulous to hire someone on just his word but when he saw Persephone's skills he too would realise her value.
One of the things that had made Persephone stand out (besides the name) was her ability to see things. Well, saying it like that didn't seem that impressive but what she meant was that she had the uncanny ability to notice the small details and deduce them. A bit like Sherlock Holmes except modern, female and not a fictional character. But in the BAU everyone was like that. They could all read behaviour, they could all make those deductions and they were all good at it. Did that mean she would become another tree in an already packed forest?
· There were several things she noticed as she stepped out of the car and into the car park:
· The security guard eyeing her suspiciously.
· The Black SUV parked opposite that had a wrapper from a well-known fast-food chain.
· The Blue Volvo that had clearly been parked there a few days.
It wasn't important right now. What was important right now was the interview. Persephone was a good fifteen minutes early. She thought that was a bit late actually, though that was probably just her. Punctuality was important to her, one of the many parts of her personality that were no doubt shaped by her childhood.
Realising that the security guard was rapidly approaching her, she drew out her credentials and the invitation letter she'd been sent.
"Persephone Ambrose, here for the BAU interviews bring led by Agent Hotchner."
The guard visibly relaxed and stuck out an arm to guide her.
"Of course, right this way Agent Ambrose." He led her to the front desk before heading back outside to 'guard the perimeter'.
After showing the receptionist her information again, she was directed to a sign-in sheet. She nearly signed the employees' sign-in sheet and noted the registration numbers. Mmm. Interesting.
After signing in, she entered the lift and pressed the button corresponding to the level she needed. As she left the lifting rising, she tried to calm her nerves. '266 people were injured in lift accidents from 2002-2010. It's differently more than that now. Ok, that's not that helping. Sea otters hold hands while sleeping so they don't drift apart. That's better. What else?'
PING
A very colourfully dressed woman came up to her. It was nice. She clearly didn't let the formality of the FBI change her personality. It was not often someone was that colourfully dressed but Persephone like whomever this woman was. She was looking slightly flustered and Persephone could detect a sense of worry and annoyance on her face behind her friendly exterior.
"Tamara Davis?" She asked as a way of a greeting.
"Ah. No. Persephone Ambrose. Please to meet you." She introduced herself and shook the lady's hand.
"Well hello there. You know you're a bit early."
"Yeah sorry about that. I can come back later if that's easier." Persephone apologised, worried she's caused some inconvenience to the kind and colourful lady.
"Don't worry about it! I'm Penelope Garcia. I'm the tech analyst for the BAU but today I'm helping with the interviews. You're British, aren't you?"
"How could you tell?"
"I like it. I love Britain. Oh, I suppose you will want me to show you where you can wait. This way please."
Garcia led Persephone to a corridor where there were some benches underneath some pictures of agents that have been killed in the line of duty. She sat down where she had a good view of the bullpen. The rest of the BAU team were supposedly working, though from what she could see they were messing about. It brought a smile to her lips.
A man with a mop of brown hair was swinging in his office chair scowling at a black man. This agent reminded her of the stereotypical jock character in films about American high schools. He was clearly teasing the younger man though never looked bothered.
Jock was interrupted in his teasing when a blond-haired woman chucked a ball of paper at his head. Unfortunately, it bounced off his rather shinny head and hit the file behind him, the one a black-haired woman was working. Cleopatra (she looked like a few modern depictions of her) rose slowly and looked like she was about to chase Jock around the room. He tried to appease her, pointing desperately to the blonde who had thrown the paper ball.
Persephone smile grew wider and she chuckled to herself. She longed to have a relationship like that with someone. Just like she used with- 'STOP IT, Persephone Ambrose. There's no use getting attached. Even if you do get the job, they probably won't even like you. Remember people only leave you, hurt you or do a combination of the two.'
Garcia interrupted her thoughts, informing her that she'd spoken to Hotch and he said she could go through. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door and upon hearing a bid to enter, she opened the door.
She had a feeling that it wasn't the done with thing to profile each other but she couldn't help but observe and deduce a few things about the stern-looking man in front of her. Persephone took his hand and introduced herself.
"Agent Hotchner? I'm Persephone Ambrose."
"Nice to meet you, Agent Ambrose, please take a seat."
Hotch picked up the file and looked at it for a few seconds. 'This is your chance Persephone. Don't miss it.'
"Well, I have to say your CV interested me. I've heard a glowing report. You spent time at the Special Branch of Scotland before moving to British Interpol and finally the American one?"
"That's right sir."
"Impress me."
"I beg your pardon, sir?"
"As I've said, I've heard great things. As has Agent Prentiss, I'm sure you're aware that she used to work for Interpol too. However, I like to form my own opinion so Agent Ambrose, impress me."
Persephone hesitated for a second. Hotch's micro-expressions suggested he was serious but also seemed like a guy whose micro-expressions always suggested he was serious.
"You were running late this morning, so you got breakfast at Wendy's before you got here. You overslept, didn't you?"
"How did you reach that conclusion?"
"In the parking lot, your SUV had wrapping from Wendy's, the kind they use to hold a breakfast wrap. I know it was yours because the registration matched the one you wrote next to your name on the sign-in sheet." She started.
"Now you could just have been hungry but judging by your desk you're very tidy. You wouldn't leave a piece of rubbish unless you missed it and you're the leader of a renowned team of profilers, you wouldn't miss something unless you were in a hurry. Following protocol is important to you, so you'd try to be on time. So that must mean you were running late this morning but due to a reason out of your control. You look tired and judging by your bin that's your third coffee even though it's only 10:00. The conclusion: you overslept and didn't have time for breakfast, but you need to eat so you got something from Wendy's. Oh, and to make matters worse, the women just before me didn't show."
Persephone stopped and waited for Hotch to respond to her analysis, but he just looked at her. Looked at her in a way that requested she explain her last deduction.
"When I got here Garcia asked if I was Tamara Davis. Therefore, she hadn't turned up yet. I'm early but not that early and Garcia didn't ask if I was anyone else thus, Tamara was supposed to be just before me."
Hotch, well, he didn't exactly smile but his constant frown edged up slightly. He was impressed.
"Why do you want to leave Interpol and join the FBI?" he asked
"Well." Persephone explained "I wanted a change. I've liaised with the FBI a few times now and I always seem to integrate better with them than I do Interpol, so I thought it was a better fit."
Hotch could tell, however, that that wasn't the real reason or at least it wasn't the full one. He was about to ask her to elaborate when they were interrupted by a knock. It was JJ.
"Hotch, we got a case." She informed him.
"Ok thanks, I will meet you in the conference room." He then turned his gaze to Persephone, considering her. Persephone, who knew better than to leave without a dismissal, tried to read to Unit Chief's face with curiosity.
"What's your schedule like?"
"I'm free for a few days."
"How many exactly?"
"5"
"How long can you have a go-bag ready?"
"I already have one in my car. I always do – you never know when you might have to go somewhere."
Hotch nodded and rose from his seat.
"In that case, I would like to invite you to join us. Think of it as an extended interview. What do you say?"
Persephone allowed herself a smile.
"I would love to sir, thank you."
Persephone couldn't believe it. She hadn't even expected to be invited for an interview in the first place. There must have been hundreds of responses for a place of the BAU. A majority of those would have been from the same agency and she had expected Agent Hotchner to prefer someone from the FBI. It would be easier for him and would be less paperwork. She did hear back from him and now, he was inviting her to test out her skills on a case!
She was certain that that had not been the standard practice. After all, it would mean having a case for every interviewee and as she had already established, there were a few of them. Persephone thought about it. She hoped that whatever happened, they caught the Unsub. Someone was going around hurting people and she felt a duty to stop it. She also hoped that she wouldn't make a fool of herself during the case. Did it sound heartless to say that she wanted to make sure she did well? If Hotch wanted her to come that meant they must want to see her skills. She took some deep breaths as she tried to calm down. There was no use in getting panicked over this. The important thing was to ensure they apprehended their Unsub.
Hotch was not expecting to ask Agent Ambrose to join the case. It wasn't the standard protocol and if Strauss found out she would no doubt complain, but all the same, he was glad that he decided to go with it. Ambrose seemed competent and the few things she had noticed had impressed him. However, it was hard to make a measure of their ability as a profiler without actually seeing her in action.
A person's profiling skills were not the only important thing he needed to determine. The BAU was like a family. It was crucial that the members of the team respected that and worked well with its current members. Sometimes people didn't care for the familiarity they had with each other and while he would never expect a new member to act as a member of their unusual family, he did expect them to respect their dynamic. Hotch also had a protective streak. Reid was often underestimated and sometimes mistreated because people thought he was 'weedy'. If Ambrose was one of those people, she would not have a place on his team.
A case would be the perfect opportunity to see how she worked with the rest of the team and indeed how she worked with them. It was just lucky timing that they had been presented with the opportunity. Of course, it meant that someone was murdering other people which was NOT a good thing. Hotch just hoped that Ambrose had her priorities straight and that she would show him she was a good fit for the BAU. Turner certainly thought so, and Hotch respected his opinion. That didn't mean he wasn't going to try and see if he agreed. He had felt, though, already, that she would be a fantastic fit for the BAU.