I stepped back into my new workplace,and plopped down in my chair,quickly scanning the area. Satisfied that I had not seen who I was looking for, I reviewed the case file in my mind again. Nothing was adding up. We had no leads, no suspects, no witnesses. Honestly, we just needed more information, there was nothing that we could now. I sighed, dragging myself over to the crappy coffee machine and pouring myself a cup. It had been a long day, and I all I wanted was to curl up in my bed with the new Stephen King novel.
"Hey Clifton. It's paperwork day. Ugh."Morgan joined me at the coffee machine, groaning, but a slow grin crawled up my face. Paperwork was perfect today. It was exactly what I needed.
"Prentiss! You didn't get to meet Clifton yesterday properly, did you?" Morgan yelled to the brunette who had come in with Reid.
"No, I didn't." Prentiss came up, frowning at me. At least she had some intuition. It would help her in the end.
"Emily Prentiss."
"Annabelle Clifton." I introduced myself the same way, and Prentiss studied me, wary of my bleak response.
And with that, I turned around and walked over to my desk, pulling out a pen and starting from the first file on my desk. I didn't miss the odd looks from the rest of the team, and I continued on, happy to be away from the exhausting social interaction.
"So, where are you from?" Prentiss spoke, trying to figure me out.
"All around." Let them make what they wanted to from the statement. I wasn't going to openly give out my personal info in front of some people I had met less than a day ago.
"What do you mean?" While I pondered what to reply with, another voice chimed up
"Arcata, California. In the 2n-" What was he doing? Giving up information about me when I had made it clear that I was not going to tell them.
"That's enough." I morphed my voice into steel, and glared the same way at Reid. He was not going to step all over me again. I would never let it happen again.
"Sooo, you're a Cali girl. I would've never guessed that, Clifton." Morgan inserted his opinion, but I continued to glare at Reid. This wasn't surprising, I thought it odd that Morgan had kept silent this entire time.
"I didn't live there for long. Only in my childhood I had lived there." Reid shot me a confused glance, as did the others, but the rest of the team was wondering how Reid had known where I had lived, and I couldn't blame them. If someone like me had joined a group that was my family, I would be wondering the same thing.
"Arcata? I haven't heard of it?" Garcia said, attempting to diffuse the uncomfortable atmosphere.
"I'm not surprised. It's a very small town."
"There's so much paperwork to do. We've been putting this off for far too long. We should get back to work."JJ finally said, and I nodded at her, thanking her. She got the message, and smiled back.
I turned back to my work, pretending to continue, but in reality I had been done a long time ago. I once again pulled out a book, but this time a medical textbook on child psychiatry. I had always had an interest in the field of psychiatry, even now. Frowning as I read a paragraph, I snatched a pen and piece of paper from my purse, spinning in my chair, I began to jot down my idea. The fundamental theory in the book seemed to be accurate, but the underlying concepts were off. I had never particularly enjoyed science in school, only tolerated it, but psychiatry had broken that quirk..
"Child psychiatry? That's deep." David Rossi peered openly at the book, unashamed at his obvious snooping.
"I suppose it is." Still writing, I looked over my notes again.
"I think I knew the author. Or was it another one? Hm,I can't remember."
"That's not possible. The author passed away in 1908." I blurted it out, unable to let the little tidbit of info stay stowed away in my head. I cringed, that was smart, Clifton, drawing unnecessary attention to yourself, I thought, berating myself.
"Clifton. My office. Now." Hotch's cool voice boomed above us. This day was getting better and better.
Once in the privacy of his office, Hotch focused his neutral gaze back on me, and I noticed he had a great poker face, much like myself. But Reid had always been the best at poker, I thought with a pang. And speaking of the devil, he himself sat fidgeting in the chair in the very office where I currently stood. He refused to look at me, whereas he had no problem doing so before, and anxiously glanced around the room, tapping his foot to an uneven beat. For such a supposedly 'amazing' profiler, he was one hell of a give-away when it came to body language.
"I know that you have some past history with , and as your superior I need to know what it is." I should have known, he had disappeared for quite some time, but I had been too wrapped up in my book pay attention. Of course he would rat me out.
"It is nothing that will interfere with my work, as I am sure that has told you here." I nearly spat it out, and Reid looked up, somehow surprised by my anger. I had thrown in a vague statement, which gave me more time to scope out the situation. That was good, I needed to figure out what I was doing here.
"Actually, Reid here refuses to tell me anything without your consent, Miss Clifton." Surprised, I sat back in the chair that had been offered to me. Why was he doing this? To play with my mind again, this time until it shattered permanently? There had to be a catch.
Unable to believe that I was saying this, I blurted out,
"You have my full consent with anything regarding and I." And there it was, the statement that would ruin my entire job here. But if I had not given my permission, it would have seemed odder than it already did, and I would have been fired on the spot. Better to enjoy it while it lasted.
"I want to hear your your part of this also, to prove Reid's validity." I frowned, caught off guard, but slid on my resting poker face again. Hotch probably has to do this, part of the procedure, it has nothing to do with me. Of course not.
"We were old childhood friends. Now we are not." It was pathetic how I could sum up everything that had happened between us in a mere eight it was what it was.
"That's it?" It was clear that Hotch had been expecting a longer, possibly more dramatic version. Well, I would just have to disappoint him.
"It is. That is all there there to it." I purposely kept my eyes on Hotch, never straying to the gangly figure that was staring right at me. I knew that I had severely hurt his feelings, but it wasn't like he hadn't done the same to me.
After some brief questions, like if I was adjusting to the job or not, I made my way out of Hotch's office. And for some reason all I could think about was the agonized expression on Reid's face.
The days passed uneventfully, we had found 2 more families, all dead, but we were no closer to catching this UNSUB than office days were spent with more awkward silences everyday, and more fleeting glances from the resident genius. The team tried again and again to invite their newest member to dinner or out for a girl's night, but even the relentless Morgan's patience started to wane. They asked me out less and less, and I delved into my work, spending my every spare moment working on the case. Until one day, we had finally pinned down an old suspect.
Members of the team disappeared into interrogation rooms, and by what I could see, all were fruitless in their attempts. Finally, near the end of the day, Hotch came up to my desk.
"Clifton. We have a suspect for the Hunter case. I want you to try to get something out of him."
Hotch handed me a very thick file, one that I had read many times, even with the eidetic memory and all, and I pretended to skim it over to escape the awkwardness following me like a dark cloud whenever I was with another one of the BAU. I couldn't of been more relieved as we finally reached the interrogation room in which was being held.
"Why me? I mean if Rossi, Reid, Morgan, and you couldn't get it out of the UNSUB, how will I?" I already knew the answer,but it wouldn't hurt to confirm it.
"You're the last one."
"I'm the last resort." It was simply a statement, nothing more, no concealed veil of hurt or anything, but it seemed like Hotch took it for the latter. He opened his mouth to probably contradict me, but I stepped from the frying pan right into the fire before he could get a single word out.
The suspect was a simple looking man, nothing about him was out-of the-ordinary, but that was how he had gotten away with it. It was 99.9% certain that this man was our UNSUB, and we had the evidence to attest him, but it would be so much easier to get a confession.
"We both know that you killed the Hunter, Gray, and Martinez families, so lets cut the crap here."I chose the typical bad cop routine, one that I was sure Morgan had already used, but it was worth a try anyway.
"Did I really, Agent Clifton?"
"You were found snooping around all of the families' homes, you were not at work at the time of the families' abductions and killings, you have been known for your hatred of those families, and I'm positive that once the lab results come in, your DNA will be matched up to the one at the crime scenes."
"Well,well. The rookie can think for herself. So what do you think about being left out from the entire BAU family? Does it make your little head boil? Or does it make you want to curl up and cry?"
"This is not about my social life, . This is all about you and the families you killed."
"But talking about me is soooo boooring. Your life is so much more interesting. They should just put a picture of you next to the word traumatized in the dictionary. It's so sad, actually. How you had to turn to y-" I cut him off abruptly, acutely aware of Hotch's penetrating gaze burning into my back. I ignored him, and hastily said,
"How did you know the Martinez,Hunter,and Gray families?" I poured every ounce of my hatred for this monster, who had killed whole families without a second thought, who was mocking me in front of my boss into that question, and my eyes portrayed the same message.
It was clear that the UNSUB was surprised at my contempt, so I used that to my advantage.
"They were random people I saw."
"What made you kill them?" There it was, the question to it all. Why? The easiest and hardest question when it came to profiling. The question that grieving families sobbed and we tried to figure out. But it could never truly be answer.
"Let me guess. They were perfect. They were everything you weren't. And instead of dealing with it like a man, you decided to go and take the most cowardly way out. By killing them all." I knew that I was antagonizing him, but this was essential.
"You people call yourselves profilers? A fucking fortune teller could have told me more than you!" His eyes took on a deadly, dangerous glint, but I sat back in my chair, crossing my legs leisurely.
"They weren't perfect! They were terrible people! All of them! Especially the stupid, spoilt children! They all had it coming!"
" , you have just confessed to the murder of the Hunter, Martinez, and Gray families." This seemed much too easy. How had this UNSUB not cracked under the others? And more importantly, how the hell did he know so much about me?
"I want to make a deal with you, Agent Clifton." This could not be good at all. It had been too easy. I could feel Hotch urging me to leave the room, I had gotten what was needed, perhaps even more, I had to leave before I did something I knew that I would regret.
"I'm not interested." I strode even faster toward the salvation that was the cool metal doors leading out of the interrogation, but not before the UNSUB snarled,
"I'll tell you exactly how I killed all of them. Every last detail, every scream, every tear, every drop of blood, and there was a lot of that, wasn't there?" I walked even faster toward the door, which was just an arm's length away now. I reached…
"All you need to do is tell your new team, especially your precious , exactly what happened when he left you. How you never recovered, how you're still medicated, and most importantly, tell them how much you lov-" I jerked like someone had shot me, and I realized that had been the worst thing that I could have done. I had hesitated for just a split second, only enough time to hear the brutal words that had followed. And I had regretted it. Greatly.
"Agent Clifton." I had already shrunk down, staring dismally at the floor, this was not going to be pretty. I had heard Hotch was known for his famous speeches.
"Good job. You got a confession out of the UNSUB, when myself, Reid, Rossi, and Morgan couldn't." I slowly lifted my head, I had definitely not been expecting this. Was he not going to at least reprimand me, if not fire me?
"Aren't you going to...fire me?" I chose my words carefully, hoping that I would not offend him with my question.
"Why would I do that?" Hotch sounded genuinely perplexed, and for a moment I doubted his sanity.
"The things he said," I paused, unsure how to continue.
"Don't you care?" Hotch did not say a single word for so long that I knew it had to be bad. Really bad.
"Any of these things will not affect your performance on this team, which has been excellent. And for the medication, I assume he means the ones that were prescribed by your former psychiatrist?"
"Yes, I still take them."
"I see no reason to fire you for getting an easy, clean confession from an UNSUB on your first case, and not falling into his trap. Better agents would have taken that deal."
Caught off guard, I stared at Hotch in amazement. He had seemed to be the most uptight, strict member of the team, other than myself, I thought he would of been the last one to say something like that.
"Thank you." This time, it was genuine, and I hoped that Hotch had seen that through my eyes. It turned out that Hotch did, based off the small smile he gave me.
This time, the walk back wasn't as awkward.