A/N: Patterson's first day at the office. Enjoy :)

The walk through the lobby had already taken a toll on her and now that she was standing in the elevator, having nothing to keep her mind from wandering around in circles, she had enough time to fully appreciate how nervous she actually was.

She couldn't ever remember being this nervous about anything ever before. Not school, not college…. Well, maybe about the social part in both institutions but not about her qualification. Always having been the best of the best had not made her very many friends but at least she had always felt safe pursuing the task at hand.

But this was different.

She wasn't in school anymore finishing on top of her class. This wasn't college, either, where she had spent most of her time correcting her professors. And it was vastly different to her time spent working in the lab for the FBI because now she would come together with other Special Agents, just like her newly trained self, and do all kind of things she could do in theory but was anxious to.

"Breathe", she whispered to herself and tried to take in every little detail she could of the clinical elevator. At least the numbers were constantly changing and the tiny digits put her at ease. They were predictable and logical, she understood them. "And you can understand people, too", the voice in her head told her far more convincingly than she actually felt.

"Almost there."

Letting out a deep breath she drove her fingers through her long blonde locks once more, smoothing over some imaginary wrinkles in the, for her non-characteristic, blouse. She hadn't been sure what to wear and had ultimately settled on just a plain white blouse and blue jeans. She couldn't go wrong with that, right?

Her bracelets, though, she hadn't found the heart to take off. They were jingling now when she moved her left arm and she smiled down at the memories of the nerd camps she had gotten them at or how her brother had run back into a burning house to get one of them or the white-gold one her grandma had given her before she had passed away.

She didn't know the rules of wearing bracelets at the office yet. During her time at the academy she had had to take them off and she had never before felt so naked while being fully clothed. Maybe her boss would be nice enough.

Oh, god. Her boss.

Bethany Mayfair was head of the New York Office, she had seen her once when she had been at the office for some of the tests, but had never talked to her and didn't know what to expect. Obviously she was more of a physical special agent and not so much into the laboratory-intelligence part of the job, right? Would she still respect her?

After all she had worked in a lab for most of her life and had only gone through the training in the academy and hadn't really been on top of her class, which had been a new experience for her.

"Don't panic. Don't panic."

Just when she had mostly managed to calm herself down, the elevator pinged and the doors went open, presenting her with a huge and empty office.

Carefully stepping outside, Patterson looked around the countless working places that were still deserted.

"Figures", she thought as she walked through the rows slowly, taking everything around her in in great detail, "Who would come into office before 6 a.m. on a Monday morning? Only the new intern who couldn't sleep."

Except that she wasn't an intern.

She was a special agent.

Squaring her shoulders, she let that repeat in her head a few times, letting it become her mantra.

She was Special Agent Patterson of the FBI, former STEM professional, with a degree in computer science. What could they have on her, really? None of them was as smart as she was. They might be great special agents and had way more experience in this office but she had her brain and her brain had always helped her through every obstacle so far.

"Sorry ma'am. What are you doing here?"

When she heard the voice behind her, she was completely taken aback and whirled around in panic, trying to make out the owner. She could only imagine how scared and ridiculous she had to be looking just then. Like a deer caught in the headlights. So much for a good first impression.

All these thoughts ran through her mind before she even started taking the other person in. He seemed to be around her age, maybe a little older, but his eyes looked wiser and more hardened than she had ever seen in someone her age.

His intense blue-eyed stare still bore right through her and seemed to see right into her soul, while she was still trying to come up with a reply. Sadly, her high IQ didn't seem to be helping her answering simply questions and so they simply stood there, staring at each other for the longest moment.

"I… uhm. I'm Patterson", she managed to stammer finally and cautiously reached out her hand for him to shake but he just looked at it without making a move. After a few awkward second she let her hand drop again and had almost cried of relief when another voice joined them.

"Good morning, Weller", Mayfair greeted him and he replied his own salute with a curt nod. "This is Special Agent Patterson, fresh out of Quantico.", she continued to explain then and smiled at Patterson whose heart rate had finally returned into the single digits.

"Will you give us a minute, Special Agent?", the Assistant Director asked her and, glad she would get a minute to calm her nerves once more, Patterson simply nodded and watched the man – Weller – follow Mayfair into what seemed to be her office. He still hadn't smiled once and she wondered if he was always this serious.

"Who is she?", Weller asked as soon as the door had closed behind them and they were out of ear shot of the blonde agent.

Mayfair took her time walking around the table and only once she was seated in her chair and had motioned for Weller to follow her example on the other side of the table, did she reply – not without the raised eyebrow that told him that he should watch his tone. "She will join your team."

Kurt, who had expected something like that, let his gaze travel to the woman who still stood a little lost in the middle of their office, before he looked back at his boss questioningly. "She seems very young. Are you sure she's up for this?"

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow when the woman across from him actually let out one of her rare chuckles and he leaned back in his chair, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"If I were you, I wouldn't underestimate her", Mayfair said simply and continued to explain when he still looked at her rather doubtfully, "She has a degree in computer science. Best of her year even though she finished college a year early. After that she has worked as a STEM professional for the FBI here in New York but in a different building."

"STEM?", he asked, "Science, technology…?"

"Engineering and mathematics", Mayfair finished for him, "You rarely see them but they do most of our job. Their expertise applies to forensic science, computer technology, cyber security, electronic surveillance, encryption… to only name some."

Weller couldn't help but be impressed at the list and released the tight cross of his arms just slightly – the closest he came to relaxing. "But she did finish the academy?"

"Yes", she agreed and followed his gaze to the young woman who, in turn, was watching them, "STEM professionals can become Special Agents additionally. I asked for her to be transferred to your team when I saw her application. I think she will bring fresh wind into this office and might have a different approach than we do, helping us see things from a different point of view. And this team might need a change after Shipley left so abruptly."

Patterson had been watching the exchange closely, trying to think of what they might be talking about. The way they held themselves showed how much trust there was between them but also that Mayfair was the boss and that Weller respected that. He bowed his head when he listened and the frown never really left his face. On the contrary, it only seemed to deepen when he looked her over through the office's glass walls and he seemed even grumpier after Mayfair's last sentence but she seemed to have deemed the conversation to be over, giving him orders of some sort and he left.

"So, Special Agent Patterson", he said when he reached her, holding his hand out to her. "I'm sorry I haven't welcomed you accordingly but I haven't been aware that we would be getting a new team member."

Shaking his hand she smiled timidly up at him and was stunned when his lips did the slightest turn upwards, resembling a smile. The crease between his eyebrows was still intact, though.

"It's okay", she said letting go of his hand and trying to decide what to do with her hands next, "Oh and you can call me Patterson, if you want", she added, blushing, "The whole 'Special Agent Patterson' might be a bit long."

There it was again, the tiny contortion of his mouth that seemed to be his way of smiling. Patterson decided then that she appreciated his attempt to put her at ease when he seemed to be a very serious person the rest of the time.

"So", she started again, looking around the office, "What do we do now?"

"Well", he seemed to be equally at a loss when his gaze followed hers, "Most agents won't come in for another half an hour. But I could give you a tour of the building if you like? Did they give you your locker already?"

They spent the next thirty minutes walking around the building and he showed her everything that came to his mind that might be important, including the locker, the gym, the server room, the armory and the medical facilities. Spending this time with him relaxed her immensely, at least she had already met two people who didn't seem to hate her immediately.

And Weller, who was going to be her boss, too, seemed nice enough. Very serious and concerned about rules but she felt that if he did let someone in – like he seemed to be trying to get to know her a little bit better – he would be incredibly loyal and already she looked up to the grumpy leader.

"Morning, Weller", they were greeted by a woman in jeans and a plaid shirt and a big smile. It was actually the first real smile Patterson had seen in this office and she automatically smiled back even though she hadn't been addressed.

Even Weller seemed to loosen up a bit around the woman and even chuckled when he responded, "Good morning, Allie. Meet Special Agent Patterson, the newest addition to our team and the first one that knows anything about computers."

"Hey, I know a thing or two about computers", she exclaimed in mock hurt but got back to smiling soon, to welcome Patterson with a warm handshake. "I'm Allison Knight but you can call me Allie."

"You can call me Patterson."

At that Allie raised an eyebrow at her and cocked her head to the side, "So you don't have a first name? Or you don't want us calling you by it?"

Patterson's smile faded – she should have known it would come to this at some point – but before she could reply, Weller had already rolled his eyes at Allie, telling her to let it go and mind her own business.

"No, no it's fine", the blonde quipped awkwardly not wanting to cause trouble and tension on her very first day, "I don't really like being called by my first name and over the years I've gotten used to just going by Patterson."

The other woman looked her over for a minute, arms crossed, before nodding and shooting her a smile, although a dimmer version of the ones before. "Alright. Patterson it is."

"Where's Tyler?", she asked Kurt who simply shrugged, saying the man had wanted to come in later that day.

They stood there for a bit, watching the NYO fill slowly as people came trickling in bit by bit. Patterson broke the silence first when she felt the other two – Kurt at least – would rather be doing something useful than simply babysitting the newbie, even though he would never say it.

"So. What are we going to do today? Are you guys working a case or something?"

"Kinda." It was Allie who answered her, "We do have an open case but we're stuck, hung up on the same few dead ends for weeks. Not a great first case for you, sorry."

Apparently Weller's frown would deepen when he was thinking, Patterson had realized and watched the agent stare at her without really looking at her, deep in thoughts. "Maybe I can find us a smaller case, to show you the basics of what we're doing here. Or I could ask another team if they-"

"Could I at least take a look at it?", she interrupted him, wanting to slap herself for her brazenness as soon as she saw him staring at her with his mouth still open. "I mean", she tried to add, "I'm part of your team now, right? And you… we are going to have to solve this case at some point, so I might as well get to know it. If… If that's okay."

"Alright", Weller said after a moment, "We'll give you everything we've got so far and you can look through it. Maybe you'll find something we've missed. Fresh eyes and all that."

It took her an hour to find a lead and before she told anyone of it, she triple checked it and then checked it again and then tried a different approach leading her to the same conclusion. Only after she was one hundred percent sure, did she get up in search for the rest of her team to tell them about her findings.

They were all sitting together – including Tyler Hill, an older guy who was the last person on the team – in the conference room when she burst in, excited and terrified at the same time.

Another half an hour later they were already at the port, hiding behind several containers because they were under siege.

"Patterson, what the hell are you doing?"

Weller was yelling at her but she pulled out her phone undeterred by his screams and the continued gunfire. She had an idea and if it worked they might get out of her unscathed.

"Allie! Two to your right! Hill! There's one to your left", she heard him scream at the other team members before he scrambled over to her, about to yell a little more at her when suddenly a siren went on and they heard the curses of the people they were after.

"I activated the sprinkler system", Patterson told Kurt – and over the earpiece Allie and Tyler, "That way they won't be able to set off the bomb they're hiding and maybe they're confused enough so we can take them in."

-.-.-

"What you did out there was reckless", Weller told her and Patterson could see the vein on his forehead pulsing with the fury he was addressing her in. "You should've told us what you were about to do. You were completely unprotected and if they had taken a shot at you, none of us would've been able to safe you."

"But we got him, right?", she asked meeting his gaze full on before looking through the window at the suspect they had in the interrogation room just then. "If I hadn't done what I did, we would never have been able to take him alive."

"Maybe so", he agreed but she could still hear the underlying anger in his voice, "But if you want to work as part of a unit and a part of this team, then I'd advise you not to pull a stunt like that again, do you understand me? I'm responsible for this team's safety and that is always going to be my first priority. You put yourself at risk by putting your gun down, you left yourself unprotected and by extension the team because we all rely on each other. So if you pull a stunt like this again it's going to have serious consequences."

"Understood", she mumbled, feeling like being scolded at in the principal's office. "I'm really sorry. It won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't", he replied, his voice softening just a little bit, "Otherwise that was great work out there. I never even knew you could turn on the sprinkler remotely."

Raising her head slowly, she smiled up at him. There was a compliment in his gruff voice and she felt her chest swell with pride. "It's actually one of the easier things to do. If I had had a tablet…"

"Well, I wouldn't want to see what you can do with a computer", he joked suddenly and she grinned at him.

"I'm going to go in there with Hill. I want you to watch from out here with Allie and see if you can use anything of what he might be saying."

"Patterson, can you hear us?"

She heard Weller's voice over her earpiece and nodded until she realized he wouldn't be able to see that.

"Loud and clear", she responded lightly. She had set up her tablet on the working place they had given her and was following the GPS tracker in the team's car on the map, while simultaneously typing away on the computer in front of her.

"I'm still decrypting the rest of the phone but you're almost at the location that was mentioned in the text message we found", she told them, scrolling through the phone. "Wait. I just got another text that specifies the time. 2pm. So you have a little over an hour until the handler should get there to buy the rest of the explosives."

She tuned the team's tactical talks out as much as she could and instead concentrated on the blueprints she had pulled up from the warehouse they were driving towards.

"Okay, listen", she spoke up, "There are two points of entry, one on either side but I think they'll be meeting at the front entrance. There's a big hall that has enough room for all their boxes and they are going to feel the least vulnerable there. Three hallways lead up to that room if you come in from the other side."

She helped them go over their plan of action and when they entered the building – ten minutes before the meeting they were about to burst – she held her breath, trying to distract them as little as she could by only giving them what they needed. Like how many heat signature she could see on the building's camera or that there was another car coming in from the west.

Suddenly she saw a flare on one of the cameras and her eyes widened as her heart rate quickened. "They have a bomb!", she all but yelled into her own earpiece, "They're going to detonate it. Get out of there! Now!"

"Agent Patterson?"

She looked up from the paperwork she had been staring at for the last thirty minutes, when Mayfair approached her and sat down in a chair next to her.

"Why don't you call it a day?", she suggested friendly, "It's been a long one. You should go home."

It was all she could do to keep from crying when she shook her head. "How can I go home?", she almost choked out, "I should've-"

"No", Mayfair denied and something in the other woman's voice made her look up to find her brown eyes staring intently at her, "You did all that you could. I've read all three reports and it was only because you warned them, that they were already retreating. You are the reason they're still alive."

"But Weller-"

"He's fine", the assistant director smiled at her and gently took the piece of paper from her hands, "He's a tough one, Agent Weller. And he only sustained some minor wounds. They're mostly keeping him overnight for observation. I'm actually surprised he hasn't checked himself out already."

Patterson stared at her, "Why would he do that?"

But she already felt her heartrate return to normal. She had been so scared when she had seen the flare on the screen and downright terrified when she had been listening in on the team's breathless conversation, praying they would make it out of there in time. They had, but barely.

Weller had just stepped out the door, the last man to leave the sinking ship, and the explosion had him fly at least 10 feet. She had called the paramedics right away but the few seconds that he didn't respond to any of their calls and where all she could hear had been the crackle and cracking of the building coming down, had been the worst of her life so far.

"He might be a little stubborn at times", Mayfair was just replying and even Patterson, having spent only a day with him, could wholeheartedly agree. "Now, go home. Tomorrow's another day."

Patterson did leave the office but instead of going home she made a detour to the hospital Weller had been taken to, all the while asking herself if a sickbed visit was an appropriate thing to do or if he would just send her back home. She had a feeling, though, that beneath that hard exterior was a lonely man and maybe he would appreciate the company.

At least she tried to persuade herself, when she walked down the hallway to his room. Just as she was pondering to just turn around again, the door opened and Allie walked right into her.

"Oh. I'm so sorry", apologized the other woman, only afterwards realizing who she had run into. "Hi Patterson. What are you doing here?"

"I was just-", she started, fiddling with the sleeve of her jacket instead of looking up, "I just wanted to see how he was doing."

Allie smiled and Patterson looked up when she felt the woman's hand giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "He's fine", she told her earnestly, "We all are. Because of you. You saved our lives. It's not your fault he didn't run fast enough."

The blonde nodded. "What took him so long?", she wanted to know and to her surprise Allie actually chuckled before her eyes drifted back to the door and softened, "Well, he feels responsible for all of us. He was making sure no one was behind him. Also, I think his yelling was interfering with his running."

Both women laughed then and Allie gave Patterson's arm another pat before biding her good night and it was Patterson's turn to enter the room.

"I told you, Allie. I'm fine. Oh-", Kurt cocked his head to the side from his spot in the hospital bed and shot her a small smile, "Why are you here? Is everything okay?"

"Yes. Everything's fine, don't worry", she smiled and took a step forward, sitting down on the chair next to his bed, taking him in. He wasn't wearing the typical hospital gown but sweat pants and a worn t-shirt and apart from a few minor bruises and bandages there didn't seem to be much wrong with him.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"I'm fine", he replied and maybe it was because he realized just how hackneyed that sounded coming from someone in a hospital bed or because she seemed so shy the way she was fumbling with her handbag but he shot her a smile. A warm, open, wide smile that reached his eyes for the first time that day.

"You were great today", he told her sincerely and when she simply nodded he continued, "You really were. We wouldn't have gotten there without you and we wouldn't have gotten out without you either."

"But we didn't get the bad guys", she objected quietly.

He shrugged before realizing that the movement was painful. "Then we're gonna get them tomorrow. But today we already stopped their biggest handover yet and we've got one of their sidekicks in custody. We're gonna get them."

She didn't reply to that, her mind still going over everything she had learned today, when he spoke up again, "How are you feeling? Did it feel like too much action?"

"I.. I don't know." She hadn't even thought of it until now. "I mean, it's a lot more action than when I'm just in the lab but I liked it… it was exciting and it felt good to do something good."

"Mayfair was right", he noted quietly and when she looked up at him in confusion, he explained it further, "You're a great addition to the team. And we have a huge lab that we barely use and that I think still works with outdated technology but if you want you can make that your new working place, redecorate a little. It's amazing what you can do with a computer and I think giving you a place to work with that is worthy of your knowledge would be a great asset to our team."

She simply stared at him, the vision of a lab she could plan herself to work with this highly qualified team was a dream come true. Never in a million years would she have expected that. She would use it, she swore to herself, she would use our opportunities and abilities to do good.

They talked for a little while longer and when she left it was well past 9pm but she had never felt this energized, as if she could do absolutely anything right now.

She had already opened the door when she turned around one last time and grinned mischievously at her boss.

"I think she likes you. Allie, I mean."

Next up Zapata and Reade: Ying and Yang