Chapter Five
Kristina flopped down on the small hotel bed as soon as she entered her room, closing her tired hazel eyes briefly before taking her cell phone out of her pocket and hitting redial. She needed to hear a familiar voice, so she had called the first person to come to mind- her best friend, her confidant, her partner...or, ex-partner.
"Kricket, what's going on? It's late." Frank Washer remarked, glancing over at the clock on his nightstand to confirm his statement. He rested his head on his pillow.
"Is everything alright? How was your first day?"
Kristina exhaled a deep sigh of relief.
"We're in Columbus."
"Wow, that was fast." He stated the obvious, and the brunette couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yep, things haven't changed much in the three weeks since you retired." She jabbed, playfully teasing the older ex-agent.
"So, how was your first day?
Kristina smiled. Even though he had retired, she knew he would try to live vicariously through her. Once an FBI Agent, always an FBI Agent.
"Hectic." She admitted.
"Just how you like it."
"I scraped the shit out of my hands, though." she looked down at her bandages, too tired to hunt down the gauze and tape to re-dress her wounds.
"Are you alright?" He sounded concerned, and Kristina knew there was no reason to cause him to worry even more than he normally did.
"I'll just rub some dirt in it," she joked, staring up at the spackled ceiling of the hotel room.
"That's my girl." Frank smiled.
Silence fell between them, and Kristina felt that oh-so-familiar self-doubt creep up behind her. She would not soon forget what had brought her to this team, the mistake that led her to this very moment- the mistake that lost Frank his job.
"Frank, I don't know if I can do this."
A furrow formed in Frank's brow.
"Of course you can."
"This is my last shot, Frank. If I mess this up, I'm going to lose my job." Kristina reminded him.
"I'm walking a fucking tightrope." she huffed.
Frank paused, knowing that if Kristina Kent decided to work herself into a panic attack, nothing short of an act of God was going to talk her out of it.
Still, he had to try.
"Kristina, none of what happened in Nashville was your fault."
"Frank..." She rolled her eyes, having heard this speech from him at least ten times in the past three weeks.
"I'm serious, Kristina. You can't keep beating yourself up over it. You're a damn good Agent, one of the best I've ever worked with. You're going to have to let it go."
"I don't think I'm ever going to do that, Frank." she replied matter-of-factly.
Frank sighed. He could almost feel her impenetrable emotional walls go up all the way from DC.
"One of these days, I'm going to be right."
"I doubt it." she shot back playfully.
Taking her cue, Frank attempted to change the subject.
"So, have you talked to your mom lately?"
Kristina sighed.
"I was going to call her tonight but we were so busy..."
"She's going to want to hear from you." he chided.
"I was going to call." she reiterated.
"she called me today, because you haven't been returning her messages."
"Frank, i don't want to talk about it." she shot back nastier than necessary.
He frowned again.
"Okay, well you called me for a reason."
She groaned.
"I just needed my partner today, that's all. I miss you."
"Well," Frank sighed, "when you get back in town, we'll go out to lunch. We can go apartment hunting. Maybe you could meet new people."
Kristina rolled her eyes. "Meet new people" was code for going on dates with stuffy, holier-than-thou men in suits for free food and droning small talk.
"Frank, I don't want to meet new people."
He chuckled.
"I know, but it would be good for you."
"I'm going to bed now, Frank."
"Was it something I said?" he queried, still laughing.
"Goodnight, Frank." she hung up, a smile creeping on her face despite herself.
"Hey, Pen...is Henry still awake?"
Jennifer clutched her sister's necklace in her left hand, looking over herself in the mirror of the bathroom in her hotel room as she waited for her best friend to respond. Garcia had picked up JJ's son from school and spoiled her godson with an afternoon of mayhem at the mall. She was truly grateful for Penelope- it eased her mind to know that her baby was taken care of when Will was out of town. And he had been out of town a lot more, recently.
"Jayje, it's 11:30 on a school night." Garcia gently reminded her, and JJ squinted her eyes shut.
"Right, right. Don't wake him, he's probably exhausted."
"So..."
Garcia changed the subject to the question that had been on her mind all day.
"How's the new girl? Do you like her?"
Jennifer couldn't help but chuckle, rubbing the dark circles under her eyes and changing into a t-shirt and cotton shorts as she replied.
"I don't know, she's...she's good at her job."
"Oh, come on," Garcia scolded her, "you spent all day with her. What's she like?"
JJ took a deep breath.
"She's...headstrong. She's a fast runner." she added with a chuckle.
"Jayje." Garcia prodded her to continue. The usually chatty blonde was holding out on her and she didn't like it one bit.
"Everyone seems to like her." Jennifer quickly put her hair in a ponytail and splashed her face with water, then wiped off her makeup.
"And what about you, Miss Jennifer?" Garcia grinned at Jennifer's attempts to mask whatever was clearly bothering her.
Jennifer realized that her persistent best friend was not going to drop the subject.
"It's nothing really, just," she caved, "when we went to see Silverman, she was adamant that we weren't going to split up. That's not how we are trained to do things. Protocol is, you split up to cover all the exits so they can't escape."
Pen paused.
"Didn't he jump out a second story window?"
"That's beside the point, Pen." JJ groaned.
"What is the point, then?"
"The point is, she was acting like she was trying to protect me from something, which is insane. I outrank her. I scored the highest in the unit on our marksmanship exam." she spat. "and then she barely said five words to me when i tried to make nice with her on the way to the hospital."
"So you're mad because-"
"Because she needs to make up her damn mind! She can't just be Little Miss Personality one minute, then completely shut down the next!" Jennifer was on full-out rampage mode. Garcia was at least glad that it wasn't Will that was the source of her irritation tonight. She'd heard just about enough of his passive aggressive guilt trips.
"and she calls me Jennifer. It's weird." Jennifer added indignantly. Garcia stifled a laugh.
"You're mad because she calls you by your first name?"
It was now that JJ realized just how ridiculous she sounded.
"No, it's the way she says it." she shut the light off and sat on the edge of her bed, a wave of exhaustion finally hitting her
"Look, I need to go to bed, Pen. Talk to you tomorrow."
"Goodnight guys!" Spencer waved at Morgan and Rossi, who quickly ducked into their respective hotel rooms, leaving him alone in the hallway. He dug his hotel key out of his pocket and stumbled into his room, feeling the oncoming headache arriving with a particular gusto. He popped three aspirin into his mouth and drank from the water bottle in his go-bag. It wasn't nearly strong enough medicine to ward off the pounding headaches, but aspirin was the strongest drug he would allow himself to carry- with his history of addiction, he didn't want to have the temptation to relapse.
He opened the flap of his carrier bag and pulled out a manila FBI folder. Over the years, Dr. Reid had found that the best way to get past the headaches was to bury his nose in a book, or in this case, his job. Tonight, however, he had pulled an entirely different file for his leisure reading.
A pair of intense hazel eyes stared back at him as he opened the folder.
He had read a little about their newest addition to the team, but hadn't the chance to learn of her academic pursuits prior to the FBI. She was obviously intelligent, but Spencer was surprised to learn that she had two degrees: bachelors in criminology and a PhD in abnormal psychology. No wonder she had originally wanted to join the BAU; her degrees seemed tailor-made for the extreme cases they witnessed on a regular basis.
He made a mental note to have Garcia hunt down her thesis tomorrow for what was sure to be an interesting read. Kristina Kent was certainly an intriguing character.
The egregiously intelligent doctor made quick work of her file, slightly irritated that he had forgotten to request the extended file with a more detailed work history. He closed his eyes and tried to recall what she and Emily had said earlier on the plane...
"pour quelqu'un qui sait tant de choses, vous vous connaissez peu de choses sur les femmes..."
"tout ce qu'il faut, c'est un bon maƮtre." he muttered in butchered French, then whipped his phone to google the translation.
When he realized what Prentiss had said, and what Kristina had said in response, a smile crept on his face. Maybe it wasn't going to be so bad, having someone else on the team. Besides, he would be lying if he said she wasn't incredibly attractive. Completely out of his league, of course...Spencer was awkward and shy and was obsessed with things like Star Trek and Doctor Who. Kristina spoke French and grew up ten minutes from the beach. She had a silent air of confidence that told him she probably went for guys more of Derek's speed, someone that could challenge her.
Spencer yawned and returned to the first page of the file, eyes focused on the FBI headshot paper-clipped to the page. Lost in thought, he drifted off to sleep and was startled awake by his cell phone after what felt like seconds.
After quick glance at the clock, he realized he had passed out for six hours.
"Reid, it's Hotch. Be ready in the lobby in a half hour."
He sat up in bed as they hung up and rubbed his tired eyes, deciding that another dose of aspirin was in order. If they had time, a coffee didn't sound like a bad idea either.
He dressed quickly and met Morgan in the elevator.
The obviously well-rested agent was grinning behind his shades as he hit the button for the lobby.
"Morning, Pretty Boy."
Reid managed a weak smile.
"Hey, Morgan..."
"You look exhausted." The older agent noted. "We'll stop for coffee."
"Thank you." Reid muttered under his breath, adjusting the strap of his carrier bag on his shoulder uncomfortably.
Just as the doors dinged open and the lobby came into view, Derek turned to his young friend.
"You wanna talk about it?"
"No." Reid shot back almost immediately, causing Derek to chuckle. The younger agent walked briskly ahead of him, effectively ending the discussion.
"Okay, then..."
