Blood and Battle | Criminal Minds (gxg)

Chapter 9

Elle opens the door and steps into the BAU for the first time. Hotch greets her. "Good morning, Greenaway," he says. He nods towards the center of the office and walks over to her new desk. "I'll leave you to it." She nods and Hotch walks away, climbing the stairs and entering his office.

"Welcome back," Reid says with his small smile.

She grins, "Thanks, Reid. It's good to see you again."

I'm watching from the counter at the back of the room as I pour myself a cup of coffee. Warm mug in hand, I walk back towards the desks.

As I approach, I hear Morgan, already flirting: "Well, I for one am glad to have someone as beautiful as you with us."

I smack him on the back of the head with my free hand. "Ignore him. He never managed to get me, so..." I say with a smirk in his direction.

"One day, D'angelo," he says with a smile.

"Mhmm," I say absentmindedly as I walk over to Elle's desk, my attention on the box of her things sitting on the edge. I pick up the coffee mug sitting on top. It's all black with the white silhouette of the New York City skyline. Below it in messy cursive are the letters NYC.

"What part of Manhattan are you from?" I look over at her.

She hesitates before answering. "I never said I was from Manhattan."

Shit. I keep my face passive as I respond, "Yeah, I may have read your file." 

She returns my smile with one of her own and I hear Morgan chuckling behind me. 

"In my defense, Garcia sent it to all of us. She likes to, uh, be prepared," I say carefully.

Elle just laughs. The sound fills me with butterflies. "To be fair, I might've done my own research."

I raise an eyebrow, a small part of me intrigued by her interest. She smirks and takes the coffee mug from my hand. I walk over to my desk and sit in the chair, leaning back with my feet up on my desk.

I watch Elle unpack her things as Garcia walks into the office. Elle's turned away and hasn't noticed her yet. Garcia looks at me with uncertainty.

Is that her? She mouths as she points discreetly. I give a nod and watch Garcia's features widen into a smile.

"Um, Agent Greenaway?" Elle turns around as Garcia sticks her hand out, fully smiling now. "Penelope Garcia, Tech Analyst. It's so nice to meet you!"

Elle smiles as she takes Garcia's hand, which Penelope shakes enthusiastically. "You too. And please, just call me Elle."

Garcia nods and smiles. "Oh! I have something for you."

Elle glances at me with curiosity as Garcia pulls a small figurine out of her pocket. "It's tradition," I explain. "When Garcia joined, she gave us all some little figurine or pen or whatever." I look at the sunflower pen sitting on my desk, smiling. "She spent like an hour picking which one to give you."

"It was not an hour," Garcia says glancing back at me. I smirk. "Okay, it might've been close to an hour," she says quietly.

Elle laughs–God, I love that laugh–as she takes the small figurine from Garcia. It's of a cat standing on its hind legs, a grass skirt around its waist and a ukulele in its hands. The cat wears a crown of pink flower buds, very clearly hula dancing. "I love it. Thank you," Elle says, holding it up.

"She gave me a turtle playing chess," Reid says with a smile as he holds up a figurine of a turtle wearing glasses and bent over a chessboard.

Just then JJ enters the bullpen, a large stack of files in her hands. "Sorry to break up the fun," she says as she begins to distribute them.

She hands me three files. "The one on top is pretty bad," she says quietly.

"How bad?"

"They don't know which pieces belong to which person yet." I look up sharply, concern etched into my features. "Good luck," she sighs before moving on to Reid.

I put the files on my desk, pushing the violence to the back of my mind for just a moment. When she reaches Elle, JJ offers her hand. "Jennifer Jareau. Everyone calls me JJ. Press liaison."

"Elle." JJ and Garcia exchange glances. "Which I'm guessing you already know, along with everything else in my file," she smiles.

"I, uh, um, well–" Garcia stammers

"Don't worry, PG, she stalked us too," I say with a laugh.

"I wouldn't call it stalking–"

"Stalking is a little harsh–"

They begin to speak at the same time while the others join me in laughter. Just then I hear a knock. It's Hotch tapping on the window of his office. Once he has our attention, he points to the conference room.

"That was fast," I say.

"It's barely been a week," Reid agrees.

JJ just sighs as she hands Elle the rest of the cases. "These are for you." She turns back towards her office to grab the appropriate case file. "Meet you guys in there."

"And I believe that is my cue to leave." Garcia turns and starts to walk away.

"Garcia? Thanks for the cat." Elle smiles as Garcia grins widely.

"My pleasure."

I finish my coffee as I stand up. The rest of the cases will have to wait. Following Reid with Elle and Morgan behind me, we walk into the conference room. JJ, Hotch, and Gideon show up a few minutes later with the files.

"Alright. We have a serial arsonist. College campus..." JJ continues, describing the case. We outline the case for the next ten minutes. I'm listening intently to the discussion, but my eyes look over at Elle every few minutes. She's taking everything in, contributing to the conversation. It's like she's always been here.

"This guy is dangerous. He may have single targets, but his fires are uncontrolled and more people are going to get hurt. We have to move fast. Wheels up in twenty."