"Okay, so you want to know how we all met." Kat said. "Well, the story starts in high school - at least for us. Spencer was already in college by then…"

1994

Pasadena, California

Katerina Simmons was fourteen years old and looking for trouble. Practically raised on the streets, she had perfected the 'mess-with-me-and-I'll-mess-you-up" look young, and used that skill to her advantage, especially at this time of night.

It was around eleven thirty at night, and Katerina was finally heading home for the night, listening to Nirvana on her beat-up old Walkman that she had gotten cheap at a Goodwill.

The sounds of Kurt Cobain singing about social injustices and guns were suddenly drowned out by the sound of a kid yelling.

"Leave me alone, Chris! I didn't do anything to you, please!"

Katerina pulled her headphones off and started to follow the voices. Eventually she ended up going down a back alley and stumbling upon a sight that made her blood boil.

Three larger kids - she would guess at least college age, judging from the smell of cheap beer and their sense of superiority alone - had backed a scrawny little kid that looked to be around her age into the alleyway. One of them - whom she was guessing was Chris - was holding the kid up off of the ground by the collar, and punched the kid in the face, hard, while she watched. The kid's head snapped back before he got himself back under control and lifted his head once more to look at the kid.

"That was for telling Professor Fitz about the paper that you wrote for me." he sneered.

The guy was rearing back to deliver another punch when Katerina decided that she had had enough. She had spent her life this far being picked on by her older siblings - all eight of them - and had quickly grown tired of it. So she wasn't even thinking of standing there idly.

"Hey!" she called out, pulling the gun that she kept in her waistband. People called it overkill, but it had saved her life on more than one occasion in the middle of the night. "Leave him alone!" she called out, trying to sound much older and much more intimidating than she actually was.

"Or what?" the biggest one asked, moving closer.

Katerina pulled back the hammer on the gun, smirking slightly as all four of the boys flinched when they heard the satisfying click of the gun. "Or I'll kill you now." she said bluntly. "This is my turf, and I don't appreciate other people on it."

All three of the bigger guys seemed nearly frozen with fear - apparently they weren't used to being threatened instead of doing the threatening.

"Now move!" Katerina yelled, and they all went running. Except for the scrawny kid, that is.

"I thought I said to move." she said, hoping that he would listen. All it took was one person blabbing for her to lose any cred she may have on the streets.

"You're not going to shoot me." the kid said, pushing his glasses further up on his nose. "If you were, you would've done it already." he said, and with that, she stepped out of the shadows she had been hiding in. She cherished the momentary shock on the kid's face, then nodded.

"You're right." she said, pulling the Nerf darts out of her weapon. "Besides, its not even a real gun."

The kid laughed softly at that. "Thanks for saving me." he told her softly. "I'm Spencer, by the way. Spencer Reid." he gave a little wave, and she smiled at him, tucking the Nerf gun back into her waistband.

"I'm Katerina." she said. "Did they say that you wrote a paper for them?" she asked. Spencer nodded.

"But you're like fourteen." she said.

"Thirteen, actually. And I'm doing better in the class than they are." he admitted.

8888

"Hold up." Morgan said, cutting Kat off in her telling the story. He looked around the table, raising an eyebrow at all of them. "Are you guys messing with me?" he asked them.

Kat looked confused. "No, why?" she asked.

"So you seriously went into a dark alley against 3 bigger guys with a Nerf gun?" Morgan asked, incredulous.

"Yup." Kat said, looking pretty pleased with herself.

Gabe snorted. "You should've seen her in Harlem." he said through a mouthful of pasta. "Now that was insane."

"Oh god." I said, rolling my eyes. "What happened this time?"

"A couple of… guys… got a bit out of hand." Ariel explained as we made our way into the living room with some drinks to hang out. "So Kat simply showed them the error of their ways."

I looked at her in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me?" I asked worriedly. "Are you okay?"

Ariel gave me a smile as she squeezed my hand and slid next to me on the couch. "Because I knew you'd freak out. And besides, Miss Ninja over here had it all under control. We didn't even have to call in the big guns." she teased.

I relaxed slightly upon hearing that, but wasn't fully convinced until Finn spoke up. "Yeah, Spencer, don't worry about it. Trust me, you should be more concerned about what happened to those morons."

"I'm not really sure that I want to know." I muttered, which started another round of laughter.

"So that's how you met Katerina." Morgan said. I had noticed that he had picked up on the 'nickname rule' quickly - only people who had known Kat for a long time were allowed to call her that. "But what about the rest of you guys?"

"Well," I started, "I met they guys at the same time that Kat and Ariel did. Kat introduced me to Ariel when I was tutoring her - someone needed help with Trigonometry."

My wife shot me a fake glare as she punched my shoulder lightly. "You're never gonna let that one go, are you?"

"Nope." I said, flashing her a grin.

"So does anyone else on the team know? About Ariel, I mean." Morgan asked me.

I nodded. "Hotch does, but only on paper. She's listed as my next-of-kin in my files. They've never actually met, though."

Morgan just nodded, accepting my explanation before quickly being drawn into a conversation about football by Gabe. The rest of the night passed quickly, with everyone going home around eleven.

Once everyone had left, Ariel and I just curled up on the couch, watching the New Doctor Who episodes that I had recorded while she was gone.

The Doctor had just comandeered Charles Dickens' carriage to go and save Rose Tyler when Ariel turned to me. "I think it went well tonight." she said softly.

I just nodded, too engrossed in the show to be really paying that much attention.

"So when do I get to meet the rest of your team?" she asked me, and it took me a second to realize what she had asked me.

"I thought you wanted to keep our life separate from the BAU?" I asked her. She just looked at me and shrugged.

"Yeah, but then tonight I noticed that Morgan kept looking at you strangely, like he wasn't used to seeing you so relaxed. I feel bad that you have to hide a part of who you are at your job. So I think that we should actually introduce them to our insanity, y'know?"

I studied her for a second, to make sure that she was being serious. "Alright." I finally agreed. "I'll introduce you to them.

A/N~ Hello, my lovelies! Thank you so much to everyone who favorited, followed, or reviewed! Once again, if anyone has any suggestions or questions, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Thank you to ahowell1993, ripon, KirkSauber (of course its not too much to ask for!), tlcroft (sorry, no criminal record here! Try again if you'd like, I love hearing theories!), and for reviewing!