Forward three months…
"Have you seen Garcia, this morning?" Hotch asks both Rossi and Reid as he makes himself a cup of tea.
Getting a shake of his head from Rossi he looks at Reid.
"No, not yet she's not late is she?"
"No I needed to go over a few things with her before the briefing."
"Is there any hot water left?" Hearing this makes him smile. Baby steps she has been making baby steps since the accident. She had pulled so far into herself they were afraid that they might lose her.
"Of course there is hot water, Kitten." Rossi answers for Hotch. "Do you want cocoa or tea?"
"Tea please. And I have a gift for you." She tell him then she hands him a beautiful cane.
"I don't need it anymore. I just have to keep doing what I'm doing. Exercising and yoga, to build my leg muscles back."
"What did the doctor say about the pins?" Hotch asks her.
"If they don't hurt and if they are not giving me any trouble to leave them alone. I can deal with that."
"Kitten when are you going to start wearing your heels? I miss the clacking of your heels on the tile floor."
"Not yet I still have to regain my muscle strength on my calf, after that we'll see. Don't you like my flats?"
"I like your flats just fine, but now you can sneak up on us, no more clickity clack of your heels to give you away."
"I just might have to get you a little bell for your wrist, Kitten" Rossi tells her with a smile as he hands her a cup of tea.
"I think not." Hotch say bringing the topic to a close. "Garcia I need to see you before we start he briefing in my office. A new directive came down and we are starting the new program today."
"I know sir, chief Cruz told me in the elevator. I have all of the information. I will be ready when we start the briefing."
"Good I'll see all of you in thirty minutes then." He says before he leaves.
"What new directives?" Reid asks Rossi, as Garcia follows Hotch.
"Don't look at me kid I just work here."
She walks into the round table room and is quickly greeted by JJ. "Hey no more cane? Does this mean we can go shoe shopping?"
"No yet one more month, I still need to build by muscles back up."
"Just who are we waiting for? Hotch is never late?" Morgan asks as he takes the bundle of things out of Garcia's arms then places them on the table.
'You know I'm not broken." she says to him.
"Hush, now go sit. I want to, when you're back one hundred percent then you can tell me to back off until then, deal with it."
She tips her head just slightly, accepting the kind gesture for what it is, a friend lending a helping hand.
The team was short handed again after Alex left no one wanted a new agent to come in at least not for a while. They had taken quite a few hits and they were still trying to recover. But being who they were and what they did for a living it was impossible not to try and profile one another as they waited for Hotch to come into the room. Soon all eyes fell on Garcia as she kept her head down engrossed in whatever she was doing on her laptop.
She knew what they were doing she could feel them staring at her, all four of them.
"Hotch will be here soon." She tells them without looking up.
A few minutes later Hotch comes in along with Chief Cruz and a new man.
"The powers that be have decided that we need to work better with other agencies. So we or should I say this team has been chosen to go first. This is Agent Anthony DiNozzo from NCIS he is the senior field agent working under Agent Gibbs for the Major case response team, or MCRT for short." Cruz tell everyone. "He is ours for the next month. I'll let you get to it then." Cruz says then he leaves them to get acquainted.
Hotch introduces him to the members of the team in turn.
" Agent DiNozzo, I've heard about you, and some work you did in Philly." Rossi says as he offers his hand.
" Tony please, and that was a long time ago." Tony replies as he shakes Rossi's hand.
"Nice to met you, sorry about your knee." JJ tell him.
He raises one eyebrow questioning her, as he shakes her hand. "I watch football."
"Oh I see, that was even a longer time ago. Thank you though."
Morgan just shook his hand one alpha to an other no one needed to prove anything . It was mutually agreed that they would play nice together.
Shaking hands with Reid left Tony felling a little in awe. Here was a real genius not like McGee, and he didn't think Dr. Reid would treat him like an idiot either.
The last person he was introduces to was Garcia sitting there in a bright pink blouse with a chunky robin's egg colored beads as a necklace, and from what he could see a black skirt.
She stands smiles then hands him a cell and a tablet. "The cell is yours for as long as you are here, I programmed all of the numbers that you will need. The tablet is mine, be careful with it please. Your password is the name of your pet fish. Don't break my tablet and please watch their backs while you are out there. Come back safe and I might even give you some of my cookies. You can call me what you like just not Penny. Okay?"
She starts to open her mouth to say something when her cell rings the theme from the Mission Impossible. "Sorry that's Coop. You have the file on your tablets and you'll want to get going soon."
"Go." Hotch tells her.
"How does she?" Tony asks out loud.
"Do you have a fish?" Morgan asks. When he sees Tony nod his head, he tells him to try the password.
The brief on the plane she was right it was going to be nasty. It seemed most of their cases had to do with women or children this time was no different.
They all smiled when the laptop beeped. She gave them the new information that she was able to find for them. They in turn told her what they needed.
After the tablets were closed and they seemed to be all resting. Tony sat up straight in his seat. "So is the bastard that hurt Penelope out of the hospital, or do you need help finding him. My network is pretty extensive if you give me a name we have him in an hour, two tops."
The team members glare at him, he might be a member of the team but he wasn't family.
"And that is why Tony was picked for this program." Rossi says smoothly. Seeing the confusing looks on their faces, he smiles. "Tony DiNozzo specialty is undercover work he reads people very well and has a reputation of thinking outside of the box."
"How?" Hotch asks wanting him to explain.
"Her smile, and her eyes they look like she is carrying the sorrow of the whole world in them. She recently broke her leg didn't she? So am I allowed to know what happened?"
"Before we talk about Baby Girl maybe you should tell your history first, or we could just have Baby Girl do it for you." Morgan tells him making sure that he understands either way the team will find out all about him.
Tony knows that with a team this good trust is a very important thing having each others back. So he sits back gets comfortable and smiles.
"Well I suppose I should start at the beginning… But before I do just one question what did Penelope mean by giving me some of her cookies?"
Even Hotch smiled at the question.