"Sarah, glad you could make it," came Hotch's voice from behind me. I turned and gave him a soft smile.
"Thank you for inviting me," I said, glancing at the dark-haired woman behind him, "And you must be Emily?"
"Yes, it's nice to meet you," she said, shaking my hand firmly.
"No Reid?" came JJ's voice, and I could tell by her tone she was disappointed, although I didn't know why.
"We'll see," said Morgan, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
Then there came the sound of the door opening, along with a voice.
"I'm here! Do not start without me!" I peered behind Hotch and Emily to see another blonde woman, dressed very colorfully with glasses, making her way inside.
"And that," Rossi said, giving me a look, "would be Penelope Garcia."
"Oh, you must be Sarah Bennett!" Penelope said, going in for a hug. I stiffened up, but awkwardly returned the hug.
"I take it you know me?" I asked.
"Hotch mentioned that we would be having a guest with us for dinner and gave me your name!" she said excitedly.
Interesting.
"Shall we start the carbonara lesson?" Rossi said. "The pasta is almost ready to be drained."
"Ah, not without the expensive, fancy wine!" Emily said, pointing a finger at Rossi humorously. Rossi laughed before grabbing a bottle of red wine and wine glasses. He handed me mine and I thanked him and he turned and drained his pasta.
"Cooking is the most sensual artform," Rossi began, going on about how the ingredients were his paints. Not the analogy I would have used, but to each his own.
"Cook your pasta until it is al dente, and firm to the tooth," he continued, taking a few noodles, "Go ahead pass it around, feel the texture…" I smiled as I felt the pasta, sticky and firm, before eating it quickly.
"Now, in a large pan, we fry up the pancetta until the edges are crisp," Rossi said, showing us before Hotch interrupted.
"Being careful not to burn the onions."
"Bravo Hotch! Now we sautee till translucent." Rossi continue but then there was the sound of the doorbell ringing.
"I'll get it," Morgan said, getting up.
"Grazie mille," Rossi said, continuing his demonstration. "We mix in the eggs, the parmesan, the spaghetti, and some of the pasta water, and toss like so…" He was making it very traditional which I appreciated, as sometimes Italian food became overly Americanized.
"If you don't feel yourself doing it properly, please, just order a pizza," Rossi continued, earning a chuckle from everyone in the room.
"Sorry I'm late," came an unfamiliar voice. I turned to see a tall man with brown hair walking in with Morgan.
"See? This is why I cook alone," Rossi said, giving the newcomer a look.
"So, when do we get to drink the wine?" Emily asked, raising her glass with a knowing look.
"Soon. We are going to start at the beginning. You eat what you cook under my supervision. We are doing this together, like a family." Rossi said. Immediately I felt out of place. This wasn't just a group of coworkers. This was a family all on its own. And I felt like an intruder.
"Okay, now?"
"Now." Rossi affirmed, as everyone began to clink their glasses together. I only clinked maybe two before I downed a big sip.
This was going to be a long night.
Soon enough, everyone had successfully, to some degree, created an edible carbonara.
"Do I know you?" came a voice as I sipped my wine, waiting for everyone to sit at a table. I turned to see it was the man who had been late.
"Sorry, I'm Sarah Bennett. Hotch invited me to meet all of you," I said. "I would shake your hand except my hands are rather full at the moment."
"You know, the number of pathogens passed during a handshake is staggering. It's actually safer to kiss," he said, not breaking eye contact.
"Really? Huh…" I said, processing that factoid. "Got to say, that's kind of alarming."
"Recent studies actually have found that cell phones carry anywhere from seven to ten times more bacteria that most toilet seats," he continued.
"That's almost enough to make me a germophobe," I said, giving him a smile.
"I'm Dr. Spencer Reid."
Giving him a nod, we made our way to the table. I found myself seated between Hotch and JJ.
"So Sarah, Hotch hasn't told us anything about you? Care to share?" Emily asked.
"Oh, well, um, let's see? I'm Sarah Bennett, obviously," I said, mentally smacking myself in the face. They already knew my name. Stupid. "I'm 29 years old, and was born and raised in Whitefish, Montana. I moved to Virginia about three years ago and I currently work in a secretarial position at Bolt PR."
Everyone nodded their head in approval.
"So how did you find your way from Montana to Virginia. I mean Whitefish is a small town, right? How'd you find yourself in a town so close to Quantico? Had to be some culture shock, right?" JJ asked.
"Just needed a change of scenery. Small town, small minded people," I said, giving a shrug, and hoping they wouldn't dig any more.
"I understand the small town thing. I grew up outside of Pittsburgh on a farm," she said with a laugh.
"So how about you guys? Tell me a little bit about you?" I asked, wanting to get their attention off of me.
Slowly, everyone began to open up. JJ served as a communications liaison for the team until recently when she received the training to be a full-time profiler. She had a son named Henry. Hotch was the leader of the team. I already knew about Jack. Rossi was a three-time divorcee and was proud of his Italian roots. Morgan grew up in Chicago and was resident bad-cop. Emily travelled around when she was little and had a cat named Sergio. Penelope was the technical analyst who loved all things happy and bright. Spencer was the genius of the team with threes BAs and two PhDs.
"Wow, you guys are just a crew of real-life superheroes, aren't you?" I said, relaxing as I let out a chuckle.
The conversation ensued as they began to discuss more about their home lives. I felt slightly out of place. I felt myself start to freeze up.
"Sarah… you okay?" JJ asked me softly, placing her hand on my shoulder.
"Oh, yeah… I'm fine," I said, plastering on a smile. She gave me a look that clearly said that she didn't believe me, but, thankfully, she didn't push on the subject.
"Here, let me show you a picture of Henry," she said pulling out her phone. She went through a few pictures before showing me a blonde-haired little boy smiling as he played with his trains.
"He is just precious," I said. "Is that Thomas the Tank Engine?"
"Yeah, he is heavy in the train phase right now," JJ said, looking at the picture with so much love in her eyes.
"The train phase is a fun one," I said.
"Siblings?"
"What?" I broke my gaze from the photo.
"Train phase, do you have siblings?" JJ asked.
"Oh, um, no, I don't. I just did a lot of babysitting back home," I said, internally scolding myself. I almost completely blew it. Luckily, JJ seemed to buy it. Soon her attention was grabbed by Emily, leaving me alone to my thoughts.
I scanned the people at the table. Most of them seemed relaxed except for Spencer, who seemed to fidget slightly as he sat. His eyes caught mine and I instantly looked away, beginning to pick at my fingers.
I glanced at my phone and saw that it was almost 10:30.
"Oh! I should get heading out, or else I'll get caught with a sketchy Uber driver," I said.
"Where do you live?" Morgan asked.
"In Stafford about five blocks from the courthouse," I said. "It's about a 30-minute drive from here."
"Reid, isn't your apartment complex located right around there?" Morgan asked.
Shit.
"Yeah," Spencer said, before glancing at me. "I could give you a ride."
"Oh, I don't want to inconvenience you," I said.
"It wouldn't be an inconvenience, and it is actually more environmentally conscious to take one car instead of two," Spencer said.
I wasn't into the idea of a near complete stranger knowing where I lived.
But Daniel had said that they were clean.
"Okay, yeah, that sounds good," I said, giving him a small smile. "Thank you."
Spencer gave me a small nod as Rossi announced dessert, but "only if we all cleaned our own dishes." After Morgan made a few jokes about everyone being a child in Rossi's house, we all gathered the dishes and headed back to the kitchen.
"And now for some tiramisu," Rossi said, unveiling the dessert. Before I knew it, I was handed a slice on a plate along with a small fork.
"Oh my God, this is amazing," Penelope said, after taking one bite. I ate a bite and instantly agreed with her.
We all stood, eating our desserts. Everyone became engaged in small talk, leaving me with Penelope.
"So Sarah, tell me about you… and not like the generic background search stuff I could find with a few key strokes," she said, laughing. I froze at the mention of background checks. Could she really find out information about me that quickly? Everything should be sealed and hidden, but you never knew. I mean, this was the FBI for goodness sake.
Shaking myself from my thoughts, I responded.
"Oh, um, well I like to read murder-mysteries and I love listening to music? I take yoga and pilates classes, but quite honestly I'm really rather boring."
"What about social life? Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Oh no, as I said, haven't found time for much social interaction," I said.
"Ya know, a pretty girl like you, I have quite a few men I know who I could set you up with," she said, giving me a wink.
"I'm good for now, but I'll let you know if that changes," I said, relaxing into the conversation. She reminded me of Caroline.
Soon Garcia was telling me about her boyfriend and her relationship with "chocolate thunder" AKA Derek Morgan. She would definitely get along with Caroline. No doubt there.
Not much time had passed before people began to depart.
"Hotch!" I said, grabbing his arm before he left. "Thanks for letting me tag along tonight. You have a great group of people here."
"I'm just glad you could meet some people," he said. "You needed it… Have a good night."
I needed it?
Did he profile me?
Son of a bitch.
"Night Hotch," I said, internally rolling my eyes.
"I'm about to leave, if you still want that ride?" Spencer said from behind me,
"Yeah, uh, just one second," I said making my way to Rossi.
"Rossi? I just wanted to thank you for letting me crash your dinner plans tonight, it was very kind of you."
"Thank you for coming Sarah. È stato bello rivederti."
"E tu. Buonasera Rossi," I said, giving him a small wink at the Italian. I turned to see Spencer waiting.
"Lead the way," I said to Spencer.
This was going to one interesting car ride.