A/N: Sorry for the delay. It took me an eternity to write this and I'm not happy about it. I don't hate it anymore but I'm also not really happy. Meh. Feedback would be appreciated.

Was she nervous? Hell yes, she was.

But Natasha Zapata wouldn't be Natasha Zapata if she let anyone see that fragile side of her personality and so she was standing, with a tiny, relaxed smile on her lips and an otherwise no-bullshit-stance, in the New York Office taking it all in.

Not all recruits starting that day had arrived yet – she had been half an hour early admittedly – and so the two of them that were already there were waiting in silence. Except for a formal greeting and introduction Zapata hadn't exchanged another word with the woman but she made sure to remember the name – Jenna Martens – you could never know where connections got you.

Standing here in this office had been her dream for so long and it still felt surreal, as if this was only in her head and a small part of her was scared that, if she woke up again, it would be gone. But she was nothing if not an opportunist and that was why she was going to use the time she had, dream or no dream, to really make a name for herself.

The bullpen was so much different from what she had encountered at the NYPD. The cops had been great, mostly treating her like an equal, and the atmosphere had been comfortable but it stood in no comparison to the formal aura in this office. Almost all men were wearing button-downs and even the women were in formal wear, all walking through the place knowing exactly what they were doing.

Everything felt so much more important here, even the guy using the copying machine while sipping his coffee.

Or well, maybe not him.

She wanted to be a part of this. The wish had never been clearer than it was right now and she knew her abilities and she knew she would be able to make it because she had always been able to make it and she knew she would always have her brother's backup to count on. She didn't need any more people, she'd rather concentrate on building her career at the FBI.

The sound of the elevator pulled her from her thoughts and she looked over to find three people walking towards her and Martens, one of them being Assistant Director Bethany Mayfair.

Zapata had done her homework on the leader of the office and she felt awestruck seeing her in person for the first time. If this office had a formal aura to it, then Bethany Mayfair was the true impersonation of professionalism. She was wearing a simple blazer and heels, that didn't do much in making her taller but her actual height was of no importance compared to the attention and respect her appearance demanded.

It was a strong, confident, leading woman walking towards her – everything Zapata had hoped her leader to be.

And apparently the other two were rookies as well because when Mayfair stopped to great them, so did they and they seemed nervous.

Taking a moment to eye the competition, Zapata soon realized that the guy in the polo shirt would be of no real danger to her, he would most likely turn up in one of the laboratories or maybe even get sent out into the world but not before going through a make-over. Her eyes travelled over his sneakers to the undershirt that was still looking out from under his shirt, not tugged into his jeans completely. No, Till would never be in her league.

The other one, though, he had to be the most arrogant rookie that had ever started at this office. He was wearing a dark grey three-piece suit, completed with a dark red tie and he was smiling warmly at all of them, greeting them formally.

When it was her turn to shake his hand, she made sure to squeeze it with all she had, never letting on the effort that caused her but he seemed to get the drift and a tiny scowl appeared on his face for a little less than a second.

Good, she thought grimly, better show that Edgar Reade that he won't be able to simply walk over her from the very beginning.

"Now that we have that out of the way, let me hand you your badges", Mayfair spoke and immediately all four of them were hanging onto her every word, "I know you passed all the tests and the academy and that is an impressive performance but you should remember that doesn't give you a special treatment here. Everyone here has gone through the same training and has managed to find a way to integrate into this team. There have been people who couldn't adapt, whose egoism kept them from becoming a part of something bigger."

Zapata glanced towards Reade inadvertently and had to make a conscious effort to not roll her eyes at the man who was nodding at his superior's every word.

Mayfair was still talking when suddenly three other people walked in who seemed to occupy most of the room's attention and when one of them, the leader, came over she excused herself for a second and they both went into her office for a very important looking conversation. The newbies took the time to eye the two women that had come in with him and who were still talking, seemingly without noticing the stares directed at them.

The blonde woman had a tablet in her hand that was controlling the bigger screens in the middle of the room and it was absolutely fascinating to watch her work.

The office behind them opened back up and Mayfair returned with the handsome, serious looking guy. He seemed to be more of a hands-on man than most people she had seen in the office and his blue eyes seemed to vet each of them thoroughly when he came to stand in front of them.

"Weller", Mayfair introduced him and then motioned to them, "These are our new recruits. Recruits, this is Special Agent Weller, head of our Critical Incident Response Group, or short: CIRG. It's only one of the teams you will be made familiar with on your first few weeks in the FBI. After that we will decide which division you will be working with from now on."

Weller nodded them a curt 'Good luck' before walking over to where the women were already waiting on him to continue their discussion.

Zapata followed him with her eyes, suddenly sure of where exactly she wanted to work, as she watched them narrow in on some location on the screen, they were obviously in great haste without missing any of the professionalism. Maybe they were going out to get a terrorist just now or to prevent a huge catastrophe… Her mind kept wandering to all the action-filled scenarios and when she looked back up, she could see the Reade's eyes had followed hers.

Apparently she wasn't the only one, interested in joining that particular team.

They had been shown around the office for the last few hours and it had been exhausting. Not the walking but the nasty stares that this Zapata woman kept throwing at him as if he was the new declared enemy of the state in her eyes. He wasn't sure what he had done wrong to upset her but he sure as hell wouldn't start begging some stranger for forgiveness.

She seemed to be just as ambitious as he was, though, unlike the other two who were more tagging along than really showing initiative, but she always had a hard aura about her as if she kept everyone an arm's length away on purpose.

Shaking his head, Reade tried to chase away his thoughts and instead concentrated on the woman giving out the lunch in the small cafeteria. Apparently the food on his table was supposed to be fish with… something green that resembled some sort of vegetable and rice. Well, at least he could identify the rice.

He thanked her with a small smile and walked over to where Jenna and Till had already sat down, as well as Zapata. This was going to be such a relaxed first lunch break, he thought to himself but ignored the competitive woman across from him and instead joined the ongoing conversation.

"Who would've thought this was going to be so… huge?", Jenna was currently swooning between bites and Till joined in in her excitement.

"I know right!", he exclaimed, "Have you seen that lab? I've heard that just a few years ago it was barely more than a regular forensics lab and then Agent Patterson joined and she fixed it up and now it's basically heaven! Have you seen the computers? And all the screens? You can just pull up any image on any screen for briefings, while still working on the other computers and don't get me started on that panel!"

Reade had to bite back a grin at the other man's joy. It had been pretty impressive to see the lab, especially because when they had been ushered in there the blonde special agent had been working and it had been fascinating to watch her, simultaneously typing and speaking and thinking and apparently doing math. She truly seemed to be something else and it had doubled his initial ambition to try to get onto this team. And if Zapata's looks where any indication, he wasn't the only one.

"Did you know that she was the youngest STEM professional to ever complete the special agent training?" Till was still swooning over the blonde. "I went to the same college she did and she's some sort of legend over there. Finished her degree in computer science a year early! I would love nothing more than to work for her."

"Then maybe you should've just become a lab technician instead of a special agent when you love computers so much." It was the first time the other woman on the table had opened her mouth and Reade couldn't believe the nastiness that was coming out of it.

Glaring at her, he put down his fork and tried to reassure Till who seemed to be really hurt at that comment. "I think it's a great thing to work towards to. She's a special agent too, right? So why wouldn't you be one and work with her?"

The other man smiled at him gratefully but his eyes stayed on Zapata who had gone back to ignoring them and was finishing up her lunch before getting up, straightening her blazer out and then, without so much as a curt nod, left them to take her tray back to the counter.

"Can you believe her?" Jenna seemed seriously pissed and he couldn't argue with her. The Latina really seemed to think she was oh so much better than them.

It was their second day at the office and just yesterday they had been promised to get to know all tasks that made up the FBI and had been excited to start today only to realize that, apparently, sorting through archived case files was also part of the job. Not that any other special agent was down here with them but they were told to 'get to know the feeling for the job'.

In the huge, cold and dusty basement. It was exactly what they had hoped for and they were simply thrilled.

And what made this day even better was their respective partner. They had been split up in pairs of two to start filing from two different sides of the basement and both Reade and Zapata had barely been able to contain their excitement to work together.

Here they were now, him in his three piece and her in heels and all black, trying to ignore the other to the best of their abilities while having to talk to each other every once in a while.

Zapata's back was hurting from having to bend over for an hour. She had slipped out of her heels ten minutes into their assignment and had watched Reade take off his jacket and waistcoat about five minutes later. It was the first time she had seen him without his complete suit and she had to admit it almost made him look sympathetic.

Who was she kidding, though? He was a pretty nice guy, she had witnessed that yesterday when she had been just the opposite and he had turned to defend Till from her. Biting her lips, she flipped through the dusty file in her hand, considering trying to be nicer to the people around her, when she heard him groan in frustration as he opened the next box.

"This is not what I signed up for."

He was right, of course. She was similarly happy with their current predicament but she still couldn't keep her mouth from forming a snarky remark.

"Oh boo, is the basement not good enough for your custom-tailored suit and you?"

As soon as the words had slipped, she bit her lip, wanting to take them back but of course that wasn't possible as she should know by now and Reade's expression that had been merely frustrated before was now downright angry.

"At least I'm not the one keeping everyone at a safe distance", he shot back, "At least when people don't like me, they know who it is they don't like. I don't keep up an act, afraid that they might not like the real me so I decide to let them hate this façade I built up."

"You have no idea what you're talking about", she returned spiteful, meeting his burning gaze over the file she was still holding onto. Her grip on it became tighter the longer their silent battle went on but she would be damned to show him just how right on his money he had been.

After another minute, he sighed and started bending down again, mumbling, "Whatever. Maybe you're right. I might have no idea what you're talking about but you're not giving me much to go on considering we might end up having to work together for a while."

Just like that, her sarcastic side was back in control, keeping up that façade he just talked about.

"Just because you might be happy getting a neat little desk job where you won't be in a scrape to get dirt on that costly suit of yours, doesn't mean we all are."

He glared at her, throwing one of the new files at her that she barely caught before it hit the ground.

"Don't worry about my suit", he said simply before turning his back towards her, "What you should worry about are your people skills if you want to get on Weller's team."

Apparently that was all he was willing to say to her because for the remainder of the day, they worked in silence, safe for the shuffling of paper, and if she hadn't been so dead set on not letting show just how insecure she actually was, she would've asked him if he knew what she needed to be to get on the team.

"Agents Zapata and Reade!", he heard his name being called and immediately looked up from the computer screen.

They had given all of them their own desk in the bullpen after their third day and since then it had started looking up for him. No more time spent in the basement with ancient case files, instead he had gotten a tour of the lab and was now allowed to work on some more recent paperwork, making himself familiar with the procedures at the office as well as in the field.

His good mood might've also been partly because the fierce Latina had smiled at him this morning for the first time since he had met her and she had a beautiful smile. The snarky comments weren't gone and he had almost gotten used to her sarcasm, as long as it wasn't intentionally hurting anyone. They would probably never become best friends but he was striving for a healthy working relationship and that seemed to be in the cards for them.

Which was why he wasn't too worried about having to work with her again. Sure, either Jenna or Till would've probably been a lot easier to talk to but he suspected that neither matched Zapata's skill set.

Mayfair motioned for them to get into her office as soon as they had reached her and he held the door open for the two women before following them inside.

Without any fanfare she cut straight through the point before he had even taken a seat.

"Today will be your first field day", she told them and immediately he felt the shift in himself as well as saw Zapata sit up a little straighter. They were going out in to the field! After a little over a week of sitting behind a desk, he had already grown tired of the endless amount of paperwork that seemed to be required especially when there was no physical compensation for it.

Seeing their excitement, he could've sworn Mayfair was actually suppressing a smile when she continued, "It's just a recon mission, nothing major. One of our teams is a little low on agents right now due to the flue, and they asked for two well-trained people they can depend on."

Reade tried to return her scrutinizing gaze as calmly as possible as she seemed to assess them once more to see if she had made the right decision. He would give her no reason to doubt it and if he had learned anything about his female co-worker then that there was no way in hell that she would mess this chance up.

"Now, I know the paperwork has been tiring for both of you. And I can't say I blame you for feeling like you're missing out on all the action but one of the most important lessons you will have to learn in this office is that you can never do anything half-heartedly. People's life depend on you and that is a tough burden to carry but I believe you two are strong enough to shoulder it if you work together. At the FBI we are always working as a team." Her gaze lingered on Zapata for a second longer. "I want to see if the two of you are capable of doing that."

"We are, ma'am", he assured her quickly, seeing Zapata nod her agreement from the corner of his eyes.

"We will not let you down", she said to which Mayfair replied with a simple, "I know you won't."

"I'm Special Agent Anton", the tall men introduced himself, shaking their hands quickly but roughly. "You must be Agents Zapata and Reade."

They nodded and he continued, giving them a once over. "I see you've already changed. Good. This is supposed to be a simple recon mission in an abandoned warehouse that we have just managed to connect to our guy..."

"Angelo", Zapata answered his unspoken question and he nodded.

"I see Assistant Director Mayfair gave you the file. That's great. So, Angelo, or whatever his real name might be, has been holding a pretty solid position somewhere in the top half of our very own homegrown drug cartels and so far we have nothing that would qualify as conclusive evidence. But just yesterday my team and I managed to find some of his former working places, so that is where we're heading to right now."

"This is your first field trip at the FBI, I've heard, but I've also gone through Quantico myself and I don't think you'd be standing here if you didn't have something on the ball. So, my advice for you is: Stick together, trust your partner and always communicate with each other. You have to know what the other is thinking at any given moment. Capiche?"

When he went around to check in with his other team mate, Zapata leaned forward to whisper into his ear, "And here I thought the CIA was the agency who exerts mind control."

He chuckled slightly and shook his head at her, not daring to reply because Anton was already back and ushered them into the car.

The drive to the warehouse took them half an hour and with every passing minute, he felt himself get more nervous. His leg was working of its own accord, bobbing up and down and he felt more like an anxious mess than the FBI agent that he was.

He didn't want to show any kind of weakness, though, so he simply stared straight ahead. After about ten minutes he felt a warm hand on his knee and when he looked up, he found Zapata looking at him with the most open expression.

"It's gonna be okay", she whispered so quietly only he could hear it and squeezed his knee tightly before pulling her hand back to rest it on her own leg. "When I did my first recon at the NYPD, I was positively shaking when we got out of the car", she told him, "And my old partner, he would tell me to not stress the small stuff and focus on the things I knew I could do."

In just ten seconds she had told him more about herself than in the past week and he was so surprised at her sincerity that he forgot to be nervous for a minute. "Must've been a good partner", he replied when he had found his voice again and was once more surprised at all the emotion he could see in her eyes.

"Yeah, he was", she replied simply and turned her eyes back to the road but not before shooting him one last sad smile that left him wondering just what had happened with her old partner at the NYPD and why she was always pushing everyone away.

Maybe Natasha Zapata had a lot more layers to her than she let on and maybe beneath all those layers there was an actual soul.

"You did well out there."

She stopped in front of his locker and grinned at his startled expression. Leaning against the rows of lockers she watched him pull his jacket over his baby blue button-down after spending the last three hours in tactical gear.

"That's because you're a good leader", he replied, returning her smile and pulling out his coat from his locker before closing it gently. "Thank you. I don't think I would've made it out there without you."

Zapata gave a non-committed shrug, "That's what partners are for, right? And you really are a good agent. The first mission is always the hardest but now that you know what you've gotten yourself into, the next one is gonna be a walk in the park."

"Maybe", he shrugged as well, "Thanks, though, Zapata."

For a long moment they stood there, just looking at each other and Zapata was trying to think of something to say. She didn't want this conversation to end just yet, not when she just felt that they were on the same wave length.

"You can call me Tasha", she said finally and again he seemed surprised and she realized she liked the look on his face. Unlike hers, his face usually showed exactly what he was thinking and it was refreshing to talk to someone this honest.

"Okay, Tasha." He seemed to take a moment to get used to her name when he said it for the first time, before grinning down at her, "I think I like it. You can call me Edgar", he then said, "If you… I you want I mean."

Laughing out loud at his flabbergasted expression, she shook her head, "I think I'll pass, Eddie", she teased him good heartedly. "But how would you feel about going out for a drink? I mean if you're tired I understand.. we could do that some other time or-"

She was glad when he interrupted her, with a friendly "Sounds good to me" because her mind at gone blank at the prospect of him turning her offer down.

Maybe he had been right when he had said that she was only scared of letting go of her façade because she was afraid people wouldn't like her for herself. For the first time since… since the NYPD… she had actually made the effort to approach someone else like this and he seemed to feel that because his smile told her that he understood the strength it cost her.

And so when they were called into Mayfair's office three weeks later only to be met by the blue eyes of Special Agent Weller, they had already formed the bonds needed to work together almost seemingly and, most importantly, had built a strong friendship as a solid foundation for their working relationship.

"Starting tomorrow, the two of you will be a part of CIRG", Mayfair told them formally, "Agent Weller will introduce you to Agent Patterson and the work they're doing today. Good job, Reade and Zapata", she gave them one of her rare smiles, "You have done a great job so far and I believe there's a lot more in store for you."

"Welcome to the team", Weller told them in his usual serious demeanor that they had watched over the past few weeks, extending his hand to each of them.

He started telling them more about their new division almost straight away, about the way they had originally started out, over the fact that two of their key members had quit to the actual spectrum of tasks but for a few seconds they only stared at each other, with the widest grins on their faces.

Because they had done it. They had reached their goal and what was even better, they had done it working together and they would be able to continue to do just that.

In these three weeks they had learned quite a few things. The most important one being: No matter how great it felt to achieve something on your own, the reward doubled when it was a team effort.

Next up is Jane Doe: Woe Has Joined?