<The Barren Star> Aaron Hotchner fiction

II

Amelia was showed to her desk by a huffy puffy blonde woman, who just came in the office to hand a box of cookie to the black guy, who Amelia later knew, was called Derek. The blonde said her name was Penelope, the tech support of the team.

"Computer goddess?" Amelia said, earning a wink from her new friend.

"I like you already!" Garcia laughed, giving Amelia a pat on the arm.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we've got a case." Another blonde woman walked in the office, the glass door swinging back behind her.

"Is every woman in the BAU beautiful?" She wondered to herself. Only when Derek started laughing did she realize that she actually said it out loud. She blushed when the blond she just praised gave her a warm smile. Calm down, Amelia. She said to herself. Baby steps.

"And you yourself only add proof to your statement, beautiful." Another male voice sounded from behind her, she turned and was surprised to see the one and only David Rossi. She mentally cursed herself before shaking hands with him, which she could tell he knew from the twist of his lips.

Following the others into meeting room,Amelia found herself being the last one and had no chair to sit in. The table was prepared for six people and her presence was not expected.  She decided to just stand by, since going down stairs to grab another chair would cost her the case briefing.

Hotch was just glancing up to check if his team was all there. He frowned a bit when noticing the newbie was standing, but shifted his focus back to JJ. He wasn't in the mood to solve seat problems.

"This is Agent Bakers. She starts today as an official part of the team. You'll have more time to do self introduction later, as we still have a serial killer out there to catch. Let's get started. JJ." Hotch  said, nodded once to the blonde woman, who Amelia now knew was called JJ.

"Rita Stuart, twenty five, the second victim in Atlanta city."  JJ simply stated, a picture of a woman dressed like a Barbie doll appeared on the screen behind her. Amelia closed her eyes and took a deep breathe before joining the discussion. If dealing with international drug dealers were wrestling with humans terrible selfish nature, solving cases in BAU were a bare hand dig into the corrupted human mentality that would drain every bit of your faith and stain your positivity gray with its rotten smell. It took Amelia a long time to overcome her first interaction that happened when she was fifteen, and now she was trying to avod qestioning herself whether it was worth it to get herself into this again.

A waving hand in front of her face caught her attention. SHe turned her head to the hand's owner, surprised to found that Derek had pulled a chair for her and was signaling her to seat down. She gave him a grateful knod before turning back to the conference.

The murderer was dumping the victims into public places and posed them as dolls. Amelia stared at the picture, ears open to the discusion of her teammates.

"Actually, they weren't in a coma. You'd need phenobarbital To keep them unconscious, and they didn't have that." Amelia raised her headd at this piece of information, catching the attention of the boy with curly hair and an awkward look on his face.

"So, wait a minute. These victims were paralyzed but they were still conscious?" Derek asked, a deep frown forming on his face.

"They could open their eyes, hear, Probably even feel stimulation." The boy replied.

An idea came to Amelia's, so she joined in. "The unsub paralyzed them but didn't perform any act of violence. Maybe he's keeping them as pets? play pals?"

Rossi looked like he was seriously considering the possibility, which he soon approved by slowly nodding. " That's possible. Physical inability and mental awareness, This unsub wants total dominance over them."

The discussion ended rather quickly, and they did a bit more on the jet before Hotchner assigned the task for each agent and ordered everyone to get some rest before landing. Amelia sat quietly in her seats, looking through the case file again and again. Something was missing, and it frustrated her that she failed to recognize the odd feeling in her gut.

"Everything alright?" a woman with straight raven hair came sit nex to her. Amelia turned her head as the cushion of the sofa sank, welcomeing the new guest. "I'm Emily." the raven hair woman siad.

"Amelia. Amelia Bakers." Amelia offered her hand, which Emily shook with a warm smile. Amelia liked the woman instantly, for the firm grasp of her hand. There are some cacoon on her hand, which suggests hard work and effort in shooting or combating. Or maybe both. She felt like they would become  friends preety soon. Emily seemed like she knew how to respect boundaries.

"You looked tired." Emily said, " The first case is always the toughest. I've been there. Let me know if you need anything."

Amelia thought back to her boss, Agent Hotchner's attitude this morning. "I think everything is good so far. I mean, except the fact that there are still a killer out there to catch." Did that come out as cold? Amelia thought to herself.

Emily chuckled, patting Amelia on the back. She could tell that the new member needed time to get accustomed to new people, so she wouldn't push. "Good night. I'm gonna get some nap before the work starts."

"Thank you. And you too." Amelia gave Emily a reassuring smile as she went off. A few seconds later, the cushion sank again. She turned to find her boss sitting half facing her.

"I need to apologize for not waiting for you to take a seat earlier in the meeting room. I was not in a good mood and I shouldn't have taken it out on you." He said. The air was silent for a few seconds, Amelia could feel everyone trying to eavesdrop their conversation. Hotch was not typically the type of person that apologize for bad temper to a newbie on the first day. The first person that she thought of was Rossi, so she turned her gaze to the smirking old man, who raised his cup of coffee to her in reponse.

Not surprising at all. She thought to herself.

"It's not a problem. Derek grabbed me a chair. Plus, we're racing with time to get to this unsub before he hurts anyone else." She thought for a few seconds before adding, "Thank you fro apologizing to me. It makes me feel valued."

Hotch looked at the woman who calmly accepted his apology. He couldn't see any frustration or excitement on her face like people usually do when they meet their boss. He caught her glance to Rossi, which suggested that she wasn't ignorant of the dynamic of the team. Even when it was still too soon to make comment, he felt like the new girl would be a valueable asset of the team. "Good to know." He replied.

The silence filled the air once again, Amelia looked out the window to see if there were stars to look at, but was disappointed by the thick layers of clooud blinding the sight. Looking back at her boss, she found him settled down in the same spot with a big pile of files on his right and busy writing on the papers.

"Is there anything I can help with the files?" Amelia offered, which caught Hotch off guard. He looked up from the work, questioning her with a frown.

"Excuse me?"

"I'd prefer to stay awake, so is there anything that I can help with the files?" She repeated herslef, pointing to the file mountain. Judgiing from his look, he had been drowning himself in work and had no plan to stop. She had been similar situation before, which was also why she knew it wouldn't work to talk him into rest, and that he would understand her reluctance to fall asleep.

Hotch searched for sign on her face. Flatterings, fear, hypocracy. He didn't find anything of the sort, but plain honesty. He thought of the nightmare that crawled into his bedroom every night, tearing him apart in dreams, leaving him screaming in his own bed in his own home. That monster was the very reason why he never took any naps on the jet after Haley's death, and now he wondered if the new girl was having the same experience as he was.

receiving no approval, Amelia didn't push. She looked out of the window again, tryng to imagin how the sky would've been like with no cloud, like she had wondered many times before, how her life would have been like if she had remembered to lock the gate of her house that night. But both answers would remained mystery for the rest of her life.