It was hard not to feel a little bit of outrage. Penelope stood in the nearly empty bullpen of the BAU staring at what used to be JJ's office. She squinted her eyes to get as much sight as she could through the office blinds. They weren't entirely closed but Penelope struggled to make out the clear female figure that moved around the office.

"You have to go in there," Penelope told herself in a quick-paced mutter. "Hotch said you had to meet her. It doesn't matter what happened with JJ - it's not this woman's fault. Just go in...and meet her…"

Penelope's feet still didn't move. Hotch was clear that this new agent was going to be sticking around for a while. Penelope's task was to meet with the new Agent, introduce herself and explain what their relationship would be.

"Just go!" she hissed. Her fingers gripped the file she held. If she kept at it, the papers would soon crumple.

Finally, she started moving. Slow, gradual steps, she guided herself to the office as if she'd never been there. As if it wasn't the office where she had countless personal conversations with sweet JJ, as if it wasn't even there…

Penelope froze under the doorway. There she was. A brand new stranger. Kinda small, she thought. She was a brunette, shoulder-length dark brown curls that did seem perfectly voluminized if she was being honest. I always am, she inwardly huffed.

The stranger moved along the shelves against the walls and just as she was about to place a hand on one of the shelves — JJ's shelves — Penelope exclaimed a very high-pitched "Hello!"

The poor stranger had no choice but to spin around in complete startle. Her dark brown eyes were wide to the brim. "H-hello…"

Penelope took her moment to scrutinize the new agent from head to toe. She wasn't that small now that she was facing forwards. She had straight bangs over her forehead, though they were slightly askewed from her quick turn. She was dressed rather nicely in a fitted gray pantsuit and a white buttoned-down blouse. Penelope grudged over her admittedly cute freckled face. Freckles!

"Uh, sorry, I'm...sorry," Aitana shook her head now that she realized how stupid she'd just been. First impressions were already going bad. "I'm Agent Aitana Serrano." She came over to shake hands with Penelope.

"Penelope Garcia," the ginger introduced herself on instinct as her mind started working. "You sound familiar. Why do you sound familiar?" She tilted her head to really look at Aitana. "You look familiar too."

As of late, Aitana wasn't used to being so up close to someone. Actually, ever since witness protection she just wasn't really used to people at all. She spent a lot of her time looking over her shoulder, making sure she wasn't getting too close to anyone. And this woman, this brightly colorful woman, was looking at her like she was a piece of art. Strangely, though, it wasn't all that uncomfortable. There was something kind and soft about this woman that radiated trust.

Aitana nodded. "I'm the woman from two weeks ago that Miles Holloway went after?"

It then smacked Penelope right in the face who this woman was. Her eyes widened and her mouth went into a deep 'o' shape. "Oh!"

"I was also in Witness Protection—"

"From San Diego!" Penelope finished for her. "Oh my God! You're Aitana!" The Agent nodded her head but Penelope wasn't going to let her get a word in for a few more seconds. "I mean, of course I've seen your face but, you know, it doesn't compare to brief moments on a computer screen! Oh God—" Penelope had just reviewed her words and was horrified "—I am not some creep! I'm the technical analyst! I look at a ton of pictures for work!"

Aitana's soft laugh managed to break through the ramble. "You're definitely Penelope. JJ gave me a deep description about the team."

Penelope's head tilted to the other side at the mention of her friend. "You talked to JJ about us?"

Aitana nodded. "Uh, long story short, JJ came to talk to me. She asked me to take her position here. She told me about the forced transfer and how she didn't want a stranger joining the team. Apparently, some of you don't do well with change…"

"Oh yeah, that's us," Penelope agreed in a snap. "We hate it! Some of us more than others! So JJ talked to you about us?"

"Yeah…"

"That is great! Oh you have no idea how relieved I am!" Penelope put a hand over her chest. "Because she was right. It's so much different when a stranger comes in but you — you're not a stranger! I know you! I love beaches too but I've never been to Puerto Vallarta! Not even Cabo!"

Aitana blinked at the woman. "How do you know that…?"

Something else smacked Penelope in the face just then. Oooh, I read her journal. Her completely private journal lives in my mind. The guilt was quick to start layering up on her shoulders. She knew stuff that she shouldn't. Her act of nosiness came back to bite her, 2 years later!

Aitana still waited for the answer but she was at least patient. Penelope quickly racked her head for a viable excuse for her intrusive knowledge. "I, uh, I'll be honest. I read your files. I always do my research when someone new comes aboard." Another lie but with the same base-point. She read something she shouldn't have.

The answer seemed to work for Aitana. She was smiling again which gave Penelope a chance to breathe again. "Ah, because you don't like change."

"Exactly," Penelope chuckled nervously. "I shouldn't have and I'm sorry."

"Does anyone else know that I'm here?"

"No, just me and Hotch. Well, and JJ but, you know, she's gone now…"

"I know and I'm sorry," Aitana sighed. "She told me how it was forced and how they basically gave her no choice. But I promise that I'm not here to replace her."

Penelope's face brightened. "Oh no! Not you — JJ chose well!" And from what Penelope remembered in that journal, Aitana was a lovable person. "Us kitty girls have to stick together!"

Aitana would've laughed if the statement wasn't yet another detail Penelope knew of her. "Was that...was that also on my file? That I'm a cat girl?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah it was." Penelope was about ready to physically smack her forehead right now. She kept putting her foot in her mouth!

It seemed that now Aitana wasn't so easily convinced. "That was in a file? For the FBI?"

Penelope's mouth opened several times but she had absolutely nothing to say for herself. So, instead, she went with what was in her hand. "I have a case!" She waved the file in her hand.

"You do?" Aitana followed the waving file in the air. "I thought you were the analyst…?"

"I am!" Penelope barely hid her relief as she walked up to the desk. "But for the past week I've sort of filled in as a liaison with Hotch. That's actually why I'm here too." She laid the file on the desk and waited for Aitana to come join her.

Being completely new and, frankly, out of place, Aitana never got that cue. Penelope thought it was heartwarming. She motioned for Aitana to take her corresponding seat at the head of the desk.

"Oh!" Aitana said once she got the idea. She hurried towards the desk. "Sorry, I'm...this office doesn't really feel like mine. Probably because it isn't." She sat down on the chair and scooted herself up. Her eyes laid on the plaque with JJ's name on it. She had yet to move it. She had yet to move anything of hers.

Penelope got that pretty quick too. "What I said about not watching strangers coming to the team...that was true. But, what I also said about you not being a stranger is also true. I know it must be really weird being in an office that isn't really yours, especially when everything inside it belongs to another person, but if you'd like I'd be more than happy to help you move some stuff around. Making a little bit more homey." Her supportive smile added about two layers of hope in Aitana.

"That...that would be nice," Aitana nodded slowly. "Be very nice, actually."

"Great!" Penelope took the seat opposite Aitana. "I'm really good at it, trust me! You should come see my lair later! I'm all for colors and cheering everything up!"

"Yeah, I'm getting the feeling," Aitana smiled for a moment. "Can I be honest?"

"Of course!"

Aitana put a hand over her stomach. "I threw up this morning," she confessed, leading to a very sincere "aww" from Penelope.

"Oh, honey!"

"I didn't even have breakfast. That's how nervous I am about this whole thing." Aitana rubbed her hand up and down her stomach. There was still a lingering queasiness, especially knowing that she would eventually have to meet with the rest of the team and...actually be a part of the team.

"N-n-no, you don't have to be nervous!" Penelope exclaimed. "We're all super nice, I promise!"

Aitana chuckled. "That's not the reason, Penelope. This is the first long-term job after Witness. I-I haven't adjusted well after everything. I can't. I still have moments where I forget that I'm not constantly in danger. I don't have to look over my shoulder all the time. Last week…" she sighed, "I forgot that and for a moment I thought I saw one of the men from my case. He's dead and at that moment I could promise and swear on my life that I saw him in the grocery store."

Penelope's heart ached for the woman. Aitana, however, was embarrassed with herself. It'd been a year and she was still having trouble adjusting to real life. It didn't make sense. She had her life back, she should be happy and ecstatic to go back to normal but for some reason she just couldn't do it 24/7. There were always moments where she fell and it was always hard getting back up.

Penelope reached across the desk for Aitana's hand. "I know we just met but I am here for absolutely anything you need. No matter how big or small, I'm here! Do not be afraid to ask!"

Aitana chuckled. She has a faint feeling that she would end up liking Penelope Garcia and all her bright colorful personality (and perhaps clothes). "Thanks. Um, so that case…?" She made a nod to the file on the desk.

"Oh!" Penelope pulled her hand from Aitana's to grab the file. "Right, so, um, I didn't know we had a new Agent to help out with the liaison duties so I just sort of went through the file already for the de-briefing. Trust me, if I had known I wasn't alone in this — because, just so you know, that did not turn out good," — Penelope playfully waved a hand to the side, "—because my people skills are meh. I told Hotch that the team needed Mozart out there and I was more like a monkey playing the trumpet." Aitana gave her first honest laugh then. It was no chuckle and it showed. Penelope smiled and took it as a win. "The press is a monster I cannot deal with!"

"They can be…"

"They're all yours!" Penelope promised. "You're Mozart."

"I don't know about that but...I know my way around the press…"

"Mozart!" Penelope declared, earning herself a second, lighter, laugh. "But Hotch did say that you and I would be working closely."

"Yeah," Aitana nodded. "And since I'm still trying to figure out this—" she gestured to the office, "—place and I haven't even started going through the files JJ left behind, I say whole-heartedly: what do you have for me, Penelope?"

Penelope's lips stretched into a wide smile. "Oh, Aitana, I'm going to like you, aren't I?"

Aitana shrugged ever so innocently. "We'll have to see."

~0~

As it turned out, Penelope had the right, possibly most urgent, case picked out for them to go over. As soon as Aitana went through it, she knew in her gut that it was the right way to go. It was actually ironic how the "gut feeling" came automatically to her. Perhaps it was a sign that taking the job was also the right way to go.

Now she just had to meet - re-meet - the rest of the team. Apparently, they'd all known that Penelope wouldn't be able to handle being the liaison out in the field. They didn't know that someone else had been hired but they did suspect it would happen soon.

"I know it's childish to say but what if they won't like me?" Aitana whispered to Penelope on their way to the debriefing room. She knew Penelope chuckling was coming before Penelope even did it.

"They'll be happy that someone we know is taking over for JJ," she assured the brunette. "And I think there'll be some extra happiness from certain people too."

Aitana didn't miss the wink sent her way but she had no idea what it was for. "Okay."

Penelope kept her smirk all the way to the room. As they neared the door, they could hear Hotch already explaining the situation with the "new agent". For a second Aitana deliberated about waiting to hear what the team would say because once she was in the room she might not get their honest opinion about her.

"...Garcia needs to stay here and she fully agreed. Between JJ and I, we went with the solution that would make the changes feel less harsh than they actually are."

"But you still hired someone," Morgan said, though it was unclear if he meant that as a point to argue or rather a simple conclusion he reached.

"Yes, but you already know her."

Penelope had the perfect timing (and perhaps hearing) because she opened the door exactly then. "C'mon," she urged a nervous Aitana in behind her.

Aitana slowly followed Penelope in until she had a full, clear view of the team sitting at a table. Naturally, they all had the same wide-eyed stunned look on their faces.

"From now on," Hotch motioned Aitana to come stand beside him, "Agent Aitana Serrano will be acting as co-liaison with Garcia and probationary profiler with the rest of us."

"You're replacing JJ?" Emily was the first who managed to slip out of the frozen stun-face stage.

"R-replace isn't the word I would like to use…" Aitana bit on her lower lip. "JJ and I talked for a while—"

"You talked to JJ?" Spencer cut her off. Like Emily, he'd moved on from the initial surprise. "When?"

"Umm, last week?"

Apparently her answer wasn't the right one. Spencer was looking at her like he was trying to figure something out and whatever it was didn't seem so cheerful. If she knew it didn't even have to do with her. JJ had practically vanished after being transferred. The last time they saw her was the last time they saw her. Whatever work she was doing at the Pentagon must have been heavy duty because not even a call made it through to her. But she had time to talk to Aitana? He preferred to focus on that aspect and not the biggest part of all this which was Aitana being around. Constantly. It would be a reminder of his embarrassing attempt to ask her out.

He had a lot of time to think about that and how terrible it was. Apart from the fact that he failed miserably, now that he had time to think about it he realized how completely imprudent it would've been if he had managed to actually ask her. She'd been through some pretty traumatic stuff and the last thing she needed at that moment was for some guy to ask her out. And even if Emily had pointed out that he could have simply waited some time, he thought the chance was done and done. Aitana was gone and that was that.

But he never accounted for JJ.

His best friend Jennifer Jareau was still pushing him in ways he simply couldn't afford. What on Earth would possess JJ to reach out to Aitana of all people to secure her position at the BAU?

"Why would she talk to you?" He found the words leaving his mouth without his full permission. As soon as they were out, he knew exactly how it had sounded. The expression on Aitana was proof enough.

"Uh…" she fiddled with her fingers in front of her, "I...I asked her the same thing too. She tried to say that was a good candidate for this position, especially since you all know me more than any other potential agent. But...to be more exact, you'd have to ask her, sorry."

The whole foot in his mouth thing might as well come with a warning sign on his forehead. Before Spencer had a chance to make up for that, Hotch moved them onto the current case.

"Since I literally just started today, Penelope was nice enough to help me out with the cases," Aitana motioned Penelope to take it away while she herself passed out the hard copy files to the team.

"Last night, all 4 members of the Bennett family were killed in their home in Council Bluffs, Iowa." Penelope presented the team with a few of the unfortunate photographs of the crime scene on the screen behind her. "Jake and Sandra Bennett were the parents of Sammy, 11, and Kayla, 9."

"Agent Beeks in the Omaha field office called me," Hotch added for the team's sake. This was of the utmost urgency. "The previous night, the other family, the Archers, were killed just across the state line in Nebraska. He thinks it's the same offender."

"The M. O. is consistent," Aitana chimed in when Penelope was kind enough to switch photographs on the screen. "Both mothers died due to severe blunt-force trauma, and the fathers suffered multiple stab wounds. The children were all strangled."

"Violence only in the kids' rooms, but no sexual abuse on any of the children," noted Emily. "That's odd."

There was a mutual crinkle with Aitana's and Penelope's noses that Morgan caught. He smiled at the pair but only briefly due to the situation.

"Odd comes up right now," Penelope said after she'd managed to get ahold of her stomach contents, "Because the Bennett father was not just stabbed, he was also…" She turned the screen off behind them. "And those pictures are in your personal files because I didn't think they needed the help of 1080p."

Aitana rested a hand over the ginger's arm in a comforting manner. "If you open up your tablets, or file, you'll see that his chest was opened, his organs disturbed, and his intestines removed." She could feel Penelope writhing under her hand.

"That's awesome. Could we please leave the gross part of the conversation for the plane?" she then glanced at Aitana. "That's where you can gladly switch over to the profiling gig."

"The father of the Archer family had multiple stab wounds but no dissection," Rossi said as he, and the others, went through more of the evidence photographs. "So he went from piquerism to this overnight?" It was certainly unsettling but not until Spencer spoke next.

"Two families in 2 days. He's on a spree."

"Wheels up in 30," Hotch announced as he started getting up, prompting the others to do the same.

"And you shall go with them," Penelope happily said to Aitana as the others started gathering their things from the table. "And I am so happy because—" Her face had fallen in a second that Aitana had to do a double-take just to make sure she saw right, "—I seriously don't want to do it ever again."

Aitana had no choice but to look at the others and when she did it was done with a slow head-turn and wide eyes. "Did I just...doom myself?"

"She's exaggerating," Morgan said, throwing an offended Penelope a teasing smile. "But she is better at computers…"

"Hey!" Penelope pointed a warning finger at him and the snickering going in behind him too. "It is a lot harder than it looks, alright? Bearing that in mind, please take care of her." Her finger then moved over to Aitana. "Because I just met her and she is completely nice and I want her to stay!"

"No complaints from us, dear Penelope," Rossi assured her on his way out, though before leaving the room he did personally welcome Aitana to the team.

"It is nice to have someone we know," Emily said.

"Yeah, we don't have to start from zero," Morgan shrugged and headed out, only stopping momentarily when he spotted a familiar young girl waiting for him in the bullpen.

Spencer seemed the only one a little more conflicted but Aitana's nerves calmed once he started explaining, or rather tried explaining. "I just want to make it clear that I wasn't...I didn't mean to imply that you shouldn't have talked to JJ…"

"Don't worry about that," Aitana waved a hand at him. "I get it. I know JJ worked here a long time so it's hard to see change, especially when she didn't get a say. But like I said, I'm not here to replace her. I may be a little selfish though because I took the job thinking it might help me get some normality back into my life but I swear the moment she is back, I will be on my way…" Aitana thought for a moment then added, "Wherever 'on my way' is."

"Here!" Penelope exclaimed before either Spencer or Emily got a word in. "It could be here! Come, let me tell you what we can do with the office…" Aitana chuckled as Penelope pulled her into a hasty walk out of the room.

"This will definitely be better than having a complete stranger fill in for JJ," Emily said when the two women were gone.

"Leave it to JJ to try and find a solution for something she had no fault in," Spencer inwardly sighed.

"But I mean what are the odds that it'd be Aitana…?" Emily's growing, teasing, smirk went completely over Spencer's head in the beginning. "Of all the people we knew...we met her twice…"

"Actually, the numbers would be—"

Emily rolled her eyes. "Rhetorical questions, Reid. I was hinting at what are the odds that this precise woman — the one you tried asking out — is now working with us?"

"Oh. Yeah, I'd prefer not to talk about that," Spencer said with a hasty walk following.

"What? Maybe it's like a sign or something,"

"Or maybe it's just a coincidence — those happen too. Plus, I'm not really into the idea of asking someone out when they already have a boyfriend. I may miss a lot of things but not that."

"But we don't even know—"

"I know, Emily. We both know," Spencer stopped to give Emily a pointed look. "We were there and you know what? If we're going to be working together, I'd rather she never find out about that." That would be incredibly embarrassing and he had plenty of those things already. He'd like to avoid any of them he can. "Promise me that you'll never mention that moment to anyone."

With a sigh, Emily gave a nod. Of course she'd never tell someone, much less Aitana herself.

~ 0 ~

Once the jet had taken off, the team got to work with what they had so far on the case. They were privy to the pictures of the crime scenes.

"No forced entry at either house. Both dinner tables are set for 5 people, not 4," Rossi noted from the current picture on his screen.

"Maybe they knew him and invited him to dinner," Morgan began to theorize. "Both families live in different States but only 8 miles apart. Is it possible they knew each other?"

"Garcia, did you find any overlap between the Bennett and Archer families?" Hotch asked the ginger as soon as her face appeared on their screens.

"Zip," she popped the 'p' in her word. "They didn't work, shop, eat, or worship in any of the same places."

"Worship?" Emily raised an eyebrow. "Both families religious?"

"And then some. Pretty much all their social lives revolved around some kind of church activities."

"Maybe he forced the families to make dinner as part of a ritual, like Karl Arnold," remarked Spencer. "The fox was a classic family annihilator who targeted patriarchs."

"The dissection of the last dad makes me think the unsub was focused on male parents as well," Rossi said then, along with the others, heard a slight shift from Aitana.

She had secluded herself in one of the more distant seats and had been carefully studying the pictures as much as she could before getting the nerve to speak up. Letting that noise out hadn't been in her plans so when she found everyone staring at her — waiting for her to elaborate — she went wide-eyed. "Uh, sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"What was it?" asked Hotch.

"I...I don't want to disagree with Rossi — I'm well aware of the experience I lack but…" Aitana bit on her lower lip, "The dissection? That sounds more like — as bad as it sounds—"

"Trust me, you'll get used to that, unfortunately," Emily said grimly and had the agreeing nods of the others.

"Well, it just seems like something done for the hell of it." And Aitana felt terrible suggesting it but there was an underlying degree uncertainty she held for her belief. "Like, something childish? There's a lot of overkill on the mothers but no such dissection. That points to rage, just rage."

"I could see that," Emily said as she went back through the dissection photographs and compared them to that of the mothers' corpses. Her agreement gave Aitana some sense of relief. She wasn't all that bad.

Slowly, she had the others give her their similar viewpoints as Emily. She could be onto something.

~0~

Arriving to the field office, everyone got to work on their assigned tasks and Aitana was relieved that her roles were starting off easy. She was soon able to return to the conference room with Hotch and Emily.

"Okay so for now the press hasn't caught up with the linked cases because of the situation with the state lines," she informed them as soon as she was in. "It should be easy keeping them off for now."

"Good," Hotch nodded and continued with what he and Emily had started on.

Aitana walked around the table to get a better look at the evidence board they'd constructed.

"He's too disorganized to bring a gun. All the other items he used on the families came from within the house," Emily said as she pinned up some of the murder weapons on the board. "Kitchen knives, jump ropes, belts."

"M. E. report on Jake Bennett says he died less than a minute after being stabbed multiple times," Hotch read off the report in his hands. "All dissection was done postmortem. If it was done postmortem, it was probably done out of curiosity and not torture." He looked up to meet Aitana's gaze. "Your theory was right."

It was hard not to feel so elated with his praise. It truly was making her feel just a tad better with her nerves. "So the real targets were the mothers," she reasoned.

"Was there any indication of medical training?" asked Emily.

"Apparently it's just the opposite. The cuts were crude. No more advanced than dissecting a frog."

"Childish," Aitana repeated in a quiet whisper. Something about the murders did speak to childish behavior but she couldn't be completely certain which is why she didn't further elaborate.

"Sandra Bennett died slowly, in a lot of pain, just like Monica Archer. The wives suffer the most, physically and psychologically," Emily went on through the evidence board. "He's targeting women."

Aitana did not need any experience to know this wasn't very shocking. She would go on to help Emily reconstruct a lot of the wives' history, including back and forth conversations with Penelope for some additional information. When she offered to get Emily some coffee, the rest of the team started coming back from their assignment and from what Aitana overhead, things weren't looking very promising.

She was just about to head back when her phone buzzed with an incoming text. As soon as she read it, she laughed.

"Something good?" Spencer startled her into pulling her phone behind her back like she was in trouble. "Sorry. It just, you looked like something funny happened. Not quite the...scene…" He made a weak gesture to the conference room behind them.

Aitana nodded. "It's Penelope," she waved her phone for him to see. "She's, uh, checking up on me." She laughed again when she reread the text. "Is she always this, um, cute?" Spencer's shoulders shrugged in honest consideration. "She's not the type of Agent I pictured working here with you guys."

"Yeah, but she's exactly what we need."

"She talks a lot about cat pictures. I have at least three of them stored in my phone's gallery as of this morning."

"We all do," Spencer confessed, making Aitana laugh.

"Seriously?" She had half a mind asking him to see his phone but she realized quickly that they weren't remotely close enough to do that type of stuff. "She's adorable and a talker. She mentioned beaches were her favorite vacation spot like mine."

Something sparked in Spencer's mind. "She did…?"

Aitana nodded though she had a curious look on him. He had stiffened and though he tried acting nonchalant about it, Aitana still caught it. "You didn't know about my file exposing me? Penelope said you all had it for precautionary reasons."

"Uh…y-yeah…" Spencer suddenly wished he had never come for that coffee. It took 2 seconds for him to realize what was going on. The journal. Penelope had read Aitana's journal and learned practically everything about her. He felt even worse knowing that he learned a good part of it too. "Uh, you know what? Hotch wants you in there so you don't fall behind."

"Oh," Aitana grabbed her coffee cup from the table. "Alright, see you in a bit." She walked past him with a cheesy smile that dropped the moment he couldn't see anymore. Something was going on and even though she wasn't a stellar profiler like Spencer, she knew well enough when she was missing out on something. Being in Witness Protection gave her the ultimate guide book on scoping out suspicious people and their matching behaviors.

A/N:

Aitana's officially part of the BAU! There's so much to come, I'm so excited!

P.S. As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"