It was finally here, my first day as a member of the Behavior Analysis Unit I had been antsy for this moment since I got off the plane a couple of days ago. Granted I didn't have a place of my own yet, the bureau had put me up in a temporary apartment while I looked for an apartment and waited for my belongs to make it to Virginia, that even included my car which was being towed from Chicago.
My mother was still not pleased about my decision to transfer departments but in the end she understood, or at least tried to. When I showed up at her house and told her about what I was doing she took it just as I expected, well, sort of. I wasn't really expecting her to bribe me to reconsider.
"Samantha," she yelled forgetting I was thirty and no longer fifteen and living under her roof. "You swore to me that you wouldn't do this. I mean I was fine when you joined the FBI because you wouldn't be a member of that team and here you are going behind my back and doing the one thing you would drive me insane."
"Yes mother," I shot back. "You caught me I did this just because I wanted to get on your nerves."
"Urgh, you are just like your father was." She threw her arms up in defeat. "You always have to be the hero, don't you?"
I was happy, and somewhat surprised that she had shown the day I was flying out of Chicago to take me out to breakfast and apologize what she had said. We both agreed that it was only a matter of time before I became an FBI profiler.
After popping the back hatch of the black SUV that the bureau gave me I pulled the box full of personal effects from my desk in Chicago out so I could set up my space here, since my hands full I just left my 'ready bag' in the car.
It had been a year since I walked around the academy but somehow I managed to find my way around that is unless you count me having to ask one person for directions just to make sure I was on the right track.
Chills ran down my spine as I opened one of the large glass doors and entered the BAU, the sunken bullpen area, which could be watched by the offices above, was far more open and airy than it had last time I had been here.
Having no idea where I could find Agent Hotchner I looked around for someone who might be able to help me, my eyes settled on a woman with long brown hair who was making notes in a case file.
"Excuse me," I asked, "I'm looking for Agent Hotchner; do you know where I could find him right now?"
She looked up from a case file and I noticed her eyes flick towards an office upstairs. "I think he should be upstairs in his office right now, his name is on the door."
"Thanks so much."
"Mmm, hmm." She pressed her lips and went back to work.
My heart sped up as I made my way upstairs and started scanning the names on the doors only to find that Agent Hotchner's door was already wide open. Inside I could see someone hunched over the desk, quickly scribbling on a piece of paper.
"Agent Hotchner?" I asked as I poked my head in the doorway and lightly tapped on the door.
"Yes," he began looking up from his desk, "Please come right in."
As I entered the room Agent Hotchner got up out of his chair and I realized how tall he was. He had the look of a CEO with his crisp black suit and dark brown hair combed neatly so nothing was out of place. His broad shoulders and chiseled features were not what truly intimidated me; no it was his eyes which seemed as if they were burning into me.
Oh wow, he's actually not that bad looking.
I quickly scolded myself for thinking about Agent Hotchner that way, I mean I didn't even know the man. After all he could end up being a total prick for all I know.
"I take it you're Samantha Davidson, our transfer from the Chicago Field Office." Agent Hotchner extended his hand to me, which I graciously took.
"Yes and feel free to call me Sam, I believe the only one to call my Samantha is my mother" I answered, feeling very intimidated by my new boss as well as slightly embarrassed by my rambling. "And let me add that it is a pleasure to be here Agent Hotchner."
Get a hold of yourself Davidson; you're here to do your job.
"Alright then, let's see you'll take the empty desk across from Agent Prentiss so if you want to take your belongings there in a few minutes." Aaron said before shuffling a few things on his desk. "Here are your credentials and if you're set we'll have you meet the rest of the team. Oh, one more thing."
"Yes, sir?"
There was a faint glimmer in his eyes before he spoke. "I would prefer it if you just called me Hotch, sometimes Agent Hotchner seems too formal for me."
"Ok," I agreed knowing that he mirroring my request to be called by my nickname instead.
"Now that we've got that settled let's go meet the rest of the team."
Just then a woman with shoulder length blond hair, who looked to be about my age, appeared at the door with a stack of file folders in her arms and a grim look on her face. "Hotch, I'm not interrupting anything am I?" she asked, her eyes flicking between Agent Hotchner and myself.
"No, JJ," Hotchner responded clearly noticing to look her face. "This is actually the newest member of the team. Sam Davidson this is Special Agent Jennifer Jareau, she's our media liaison and fields all of the requests for our team."
"It's nice to meet you Sam." Jennifer nodded her head and a flashed me a quick smile. "Everyone just calls me JJ, anyways Hotch we've got one that needs our attention. I'm having the team meet us in the conference room in five minutes."
"Likewise, JJ."
"I'll let you guys finish up," she said with a pleasant smile before turning to leave.
"Looks like we'll have to finish this in the conference room." Hotch pressed his lips into a thin line and let out a heavy sigh. "Sorry you won't really have a chance to get settled."
Hotch and I made our way into a large conference room that had a large round table in the middle of the room and glass boards shoved up against the wall. There were only two empty seats left in the room, all the rest occupied by someone so I figured that this was the rest of the team.
The entire team looked up and stared at me making me feel incredibly uncomfortable, one thing I hated being was the center of attention.
"Everyone I want you to meet the newest addition to our team," Hotch began, I couldn't help but notice him look at me out of the corner of my eye, "This is Agent Samantha Davidson. Now Sam, you've already met JJ so we also have SSA Emily Prentiss and SSA Derek Morgan."
There was the brunette that I had spoken to before; I was starting to believe that she looked more like a supermodel than FBI agent. We exchanged polite smiles with one another.
"We've met already," Emily said with a friendly smile and nervous laugh, "Well, sort of. It's nice to meet you Sam."
Sitting next to one of the vacant chairs must have been Derek Morgan a young African-American man, who was clearly athletic, my guess a football player back in the day. His smile was dazzling as he gave me a nod. "Welcome to the team Sam," he greeted me.
To the other side of Emily was a young man who couldn't have been past his mid-twenties, undoubtedly the youngest member of the team. His slender body was a harsh contrast to Derek Morgan and layered with a button up shirt underneath a sweater vest, he honestly looked like a grad student.
"We then have Dr. Spencer Reid," Hotch continued on with the introductions, I was taken aback by how he addressed the young agent.
"Doctor?" I was completely baffled at how someone who looked like he should be sitting in some college lecture hall instead of a conference room in the FBI.
"Reid here has three PhD's and can tell you just about everything on any subject," Hotch said with a faint smile.
"Never play cards with him," Morgan began, "You'll lose every time."
"Why?"
"I have an eidetic memory," Reid said with a sheepish grin.
"Oh give it up kid," Morgan laughed. "You grew up in Vegas."
Hotch must have been used to this kind of banter between Morgan and Reid because his response to the harassment sounded so casual, "Alright, the day's still early and you don't need to start picking on Reid now."
My eyes shifted to the one agent that had not really said anything since Hotch and I entered the room and was suddenly blown away at who I was facing.
There sitting at the other end of the table next to JJ in a dark red button up hidden under black sports coat was a familiar face, one that I had not seen in fifteen years. He looked almost the same as he did the last time I saw him except his black hair was streaked with grey and his face seemed older, as if stress had finally taken its toll on him.
"Sammy Davidson?" David Rossi asked. "You're Richards's daughter, aren't you? My God, it's good to see you again."
I felt everyone's eyes turn to me once again; it must have seemed strange to them that I was the new person and one of the original members of the BAU knew who I was.
"Would someone like to fill us in?" Derek Morgan finally piped up and asked.
Hotch cleared his throat before answering, "Sam here is the daughter of Richard Davidson, one of the founding members of the BAU and worked with Rossi."
"Ah," Morgan laughed, flashing a dazzling smile, "So you're carrying on the family legacy?"
"Yeah, something like that." I took my seat next to him.
I had a feeling that Morgan and I were going to be pretty good friends, he reminded me of Mike back home in Chicago.
"Good to see you again, Rossi." I gave him a subtle nod.
"Now that we've got that out of the way," Hotch began taking a seat next to me, "What've we go JJ?"
For the next half hour JJ went over a case in a small town in Colorado where someone was going around setting fires to houses, recently the fires had occurred when the families were asleep and the smoke detectors had been removed so the families would have no warning. Also the UnSub was becoming more aggressive in the method used to start the fires and that they were occurring more frequently.
"JJ let the local authorities know we'll be arriving shortly," Hotch instructed as he closed his copy of the file, everyone seemed to understand what he meant but I sat there with a look of confusion on my face. "Wheels up in an hour everyone."
"What?" I leaned over and asked Morgan.
"We have a jet on standby at Andrews, how else did you think we get around?" Derek flashed me a quick smile as he gathered up the papers he had been flipping through.
"We have a jet?" I asked as everyone was getting up to leave the room.
"Come on girl." Morgan laughed as he waited for me by the door. "You've got a lot to learn."
Please let me know what you all think, also I am going to work on Hotch's perspective of Sam's introduction to the team which will be posted on the wordpress blog for the story (the address can be found on the previous pages). Consider it an insentive for visiting the site.
Next chapter will include a heart-to-heart between Sam and Rossi and brief interaction with Hotch and Sam.