Jane Morrow took deep breaths as she made her way through the halls of Quantico’s training center. Nervous was an understatement in describing how she was feeling. In fact, it was probably the last word she’d use. Terrified, scared out of her mind, and petrified all rolled into one was a pretty close description. Erin Strauss had asked to see her.
This would be Jane’s first time talking with Strauss after being assigned to the team. Jane sighed. If it hadn’t been for Emily Prentiss’ return, she’d probably be in a completely different position. But Agent Prentiss had made it perfectly clear that if she snitched to Strauss, she would never be accepted on the team. In the long run, being accepted in the best BAU team Quantico had to offer would win out over the approval of the department chief. She’d much rather get the chance to work with a team that seemed so in tune with each other than be forced to constantly rat them out.
“Agent Strauss?” she said softly as she knocked on the door. “You asked to see me?”
“Agent Morrow, come in, sit down.”
Jane did as she was asked forcing herself to look and act calm.
“How was your first case?”
“Good ma’am,” Jane answered cordially. “Interesting.”
“And your colleagues?”
“Brilliant, ma’am. It’s an honour to work with them.” Strauss’ recommendation hadn’t been the only thing that had gotten Morrow her position with the BAU. Jane was smart and she studied behaviour just like her counterparts. She could almost see Strauss’ annoyance at the straight forward answers.
“What do you think of them?”
The moment of truth. She’d have to mix the eagerness that Strauss thought she could manipulate with her desire to stay on the team and become a member of their little family. “They’re a little cold, ma’am, but it’s only to be expected. I am the new agent, after all. Agent Prentiss was very nice to me.” It was the truth. Strauss could take of it what she wanted.
“And Agent Hotchner?”
“He’s an excellent leader.” Again, she was telling the truth. Even if the behaviour of the team spoke of how they were guarding more secrets from her than they did from each other, Hotch was a good man and an excellent leader. Any other behaviour she observed was his and his alone. It would feel like a betrayal of Agent Prentiss’ trust to speak of any of the questionable interaction between them.
“How is Agent Prentiss?”
“She seems fine, ma’am, if you’re talking about her injury,” Jane replied. “It seemed like the team was very happy to have her back.”
“And she was fine while on the case.”
“Yes ma’am. In fact, she was probably the most stable one.” Jane could tell that news almost came as a surprise to the blond woman, but she didn’t ask any more questions on Prentiss’ health, physically or otherwise.
“Thank you, Agent Morrow. That will be all.”
Jane stood and left, suddenly even more aware of Strauss’ perception of her within the team. Most of the questions she’d been asked had been about the team members, not about her experience and whether or not she felt it was the position for her. While it was true she hadn’t said much throughout the case and really had taken on the role of the observer, Jane still felt she belonged with the unit and knew she could find a way to fit in.
Agent Prentiss was the first one to look up when she returned, though Reid had his headphones in, awkwardly bopping his head to the music floating from them and Morgan was currently nowhere to be seen.
“How was it?” she asked, her eyes asking more than that. What did you say? Did you say anything that could ruin this family right when I came back to it? What did Strauss ask so we know for future?
Jane looked around, checking to see who was listening, then approached Prentiss’ desk. “Uneventful.”
Prentiss cocked her head to the side.
Jane knew her approach had been the anomaly considering her answer. “She asked me mundane questions.”
“Is that why you’re shaking?” Prentiss asked.
Jane hadn’t even realized she was. She blew out a breath. “Is that what it was like? Is she always that terrifying?” She could tell Prentiss wanted to laugh at that.
“Her job is to save the unit,” the raven-haired woman responded. “She thinks she can pre-empt things by looking at what’s already happened.”
“Why this team though? Don’t you guys basically make this unit?”
This time, Prentiss did laugh. “We get it done,” she agreed, neither confirming nor denying the importance of their team. “I find she has it in for Hotch more than she does the rest of us.”
“She asked me about him. And about you.” Jane had always been taught that sharing pieces of yourself usually meant the person would do the same in response.
“Oh?”
Jane shrugged. “I guess she wanted to know what I thought of him as my unit chief. And she wanted to make sure you were okay on your first case back.” She could tell Prentiss believed maybe half of what she’d said. Which was perfectly fine. Jane was pretty sure what she would infer would be dead right.
“He’s good at his job,” Prentiss said.
“He is,” Jane agreed. “Anyway, I have my paperwork to finish and two consults from this morning.”
Prentiss smiled and nodded, turning back to her own work. Jane had just gotten settled back into her desk, pen poised to make notes on one of the two consults when Prentiss called her name.
“I think you’ll fit in just fine.”
Jane smiled.
Hours later, right around the time her stomach reminded her that it was just after 12:30, Emily pushed her chair back and stretched. She glanced up at Aaron’s office, unsurprised to find the door closed. She could see through the blinds that he was on the phone and almost rolled her eyes. “Anyone want lunch?” she asked.
Derek leaned back in his chair. “You buying?” he asked with a grin.
“Of course not,” Emily replied without blinking an eye. “At least not for you. You still owe me.”
“Do not,” Derek shot back, looking affronted. “Sandwich please.”
Emily held out her hand for money as she faced her other colleagues. “You guys?”
Reid waved her off without looking up. Morrow shook her head. “Thanks though.”
JJ was Emily’s next stop and the blond opted to come down to the Quantico cafeteria with her.
“I’ve been looking at cases all day,” JJ said as she and Emily made their way to the elevators. “I could use the break.”
“Couldn’t we all,” Emily agreed. “I’ve been writing the same thing twelve different ways for the last three hours.”
“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to work in a regular PR firm,” JJ confided. She leaned forward to press the button for the elevators.
Emily grinned. “Boring in comparison.”
“But if I didn’t know this job…” JJ shrugged.
“If we all didn’t know this job,” Emily responded. She was in a surprisingly happy mood. Usually paperwork made her lethargic and annoyed, but today, no matter her frustration with the repetition the FBI paperwork called for, she was happy. It probably had everything to do with her trip to the zoo and Aaron’s agreement to accompany her to Thanksgiving, but she wasn’t going to jinx her happiness.
“Alright, Miss Perky, did we take one too many happy pills this morning?” JJ asked as both women stepped onto the elevator.
“I went to the zoo,” Emily replied with a laugh.
JJ tilted her head. “They say that’s the best place to study human behaviour. I’m assuming there were not lessons on anatomy.”
“JJ!” Emily exclaimed scandalously. “Not with a six-year-old there!”
The blond laughed. Emily’s happiness was apparently contagious. “Wow, a family outing.”
Both women stepped off the elevator almost completely in sync and made their way through the short hall to the cafeteria. The line for lunch wasn’t long, but it wasn’t exactly short either. “It was nice.”
JJ eyed her. “There’s something you’re not telling me. Either you just spill or I call Pen down here. No matter what, we find out.”
Emily flinched. In the work place, she didn’t like to talk about her private life. However, they’d started the conversation without names, she was sure they could probably continue it. “My parents through a Thanksgiving thing every year,” she began as the line moved. “And every year, I have to deal with sweaty gross hands, and smarmy politicians. Trust me, I scrub myself raw at the end of the night.”
“Alcohol always helps.”
Emily laughed. “To dull the disgust afterwards, maybe, but I’d rather have all of my faculties in tact at the time.”
JJ had to give her that. “So you asked him?”
“I did,” Emily agreed. “And he’s coming.”
“Really? In a crowd like that?”
“There’s no reason his parents shouldn’t be there either and it’s really a win-win for both of us. I don’t have to deal with the octopus hands and even if they figure everything out, they can’t say anything because it’s in public.”
“Are you going to broadcast it?” JJ asked as they moved again.
“No,” Emily said. “That is a can of worms I don’t think either of us wants to open.”
“Then I don’t get it.”
“I get interesting conversation, safety from being uncomfortably groped and a chance to spend a holiday with him. He gets to make sure I don’t get groped, a chance to spend the night with me and guaranteed non-boredom.”
JJ shook her head. “You guys have such an odd relationship,” she said as she picked up a garden salad and a bottle of water. Not eating much on cases often translated to not eating much in the office.
Emily followed behind, grabbing a chicken caesar salad for herself, a roast beef sandwich for Derek and then a chicken wrap. “It’s not odd,” she defended. “We just have a lot more to deal with than a conventional couple.”
“Hungry?” JJ asked in amusement as she paid.
“Lunch run,” Emily replied. “You think Thanksgiving’s a bad idea?”
“I think it’ll be an interesting night. I’d pay to be a fly on the wall.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “So long as claws don’t stay exposed too long. I mean, I can play the underhanded dig game with politics’ best, but he doesn’t need to see that.”
“He probably can too,” JJ pointed out.
“And probably doesn’t want me to see that side of him either,” Emily responded. “We’re both hoping to keep drama to a minimum.”
“Understandably so. I remember your mother.”
“She’s used to getting her way,” the raven-haired woman agreed as they boarded the elevator again.
JJ was glad to see they were the only two on that particular car. “And Hotch?” she asked once the doors had closed. “If I remember right your mother sidelined him. Oh! And what about that Kite guy.”
Emily groaned. “They’ll be mourning the loss of their almost-daughter-in-law and won’t be able to make it? That would be terrible!”
JJ laughed as the doors opened on their floor and both women stepped out. “Let me know how that goes. I have a feeling it’ll entertain me.”
“You’re such a good friend,” Emily shot back sarcastically as they split ways. She dropped the roast beef sandwich on Derek’s desk and left the salad on hers before making her way up the steps. She knocked softly before poking her head in. He was off the phone so she opened the door completely. “Lunch.”
Aaron was surprised, to say the least. He hadn’t been paying attention to the time at all, an affliction he developed since Haley moved out and he had no real reason to go home. He hadn’t realized it was lunch time and he definitely hadn’t been paying attention to his stomach. He’d gotten immersed in his files again. He smiled as she stepped in and set the wrap on his desk. “You didn’t have to.”
“In theory. It’s good to eat, you know,” she replied cheekily.
He smiled. “Thank you. For lunch.”
She smiled back. “You’re welcome.” She turned to leave, then seemed to change her mind and stepped back again. “What are you doing next Friday?”
“Barring work, nothing,” he answered. “Why?”
“Let’s do something,” she proposed softly. “Go out.”
“Why Agent Prentiss,” he said teasingly, very much not Agent Hotchner. “Are you asking your boss on a date?”
“So what if I am?” Emily responded coyly. “You think he’d be up for it?”
Aaron chuckled. “I think he would be.”
“Excellent. We’ll talk about it later. Enjoy your lunch!”
And she was gone.