❝ oh, i'm sure you guys can figure it out. after all, you're just as smart as i am. ❞
OLIVIA, EMILY, AND MORGAN were standing in the bullpen of the police precinct, talking about the case, which would occasionally trail off into small talk. despite all the chatter from officers in the area, they could hear the slight raised voices of jj and spencer in the other room in front of them with the double doors wide open. hotch and rossi walked to the three to talk about the case, but then noticing jj and spencer.
"it's too late, all right?" they heard spencer say to her, as he walked out of the room, disregarding the rest of the team watching him except for olivia. he practically glared at her when leaving.
"reid?" emily called out, but he didn't acknowledge her. they looked back at jj, who hasn't moved an inch since he walked out, a look of hurt in her eyes.
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the team — minus spencer, were gathered in one of the conference rooms they were occupying. in all honesty, they were having quite some trouble figuring out the unsub's next move. "it has to be a woman very close to the unsub to make them act this way." emily said.
"then why go after surrogates?" morgan questioned. the room went quiet as they were thinking.
"griffins," hotch called out, her attention shifting towards him. "go find reid and tell him we need him back here." she nodded at him, getting up from her seat and walking out.
fortunately, she didn't have to try too hard on looking for him, as she saw him sitting on the steps outside the precinct through the glass doors. she walked out the building, now standing outside, the only light coming from the stars, post lights, and from inside. "hey."
spencer turned his head a little, seeing the familiar black dress pants olivia was wearing. "hey."
"um, we kinda need you and your intelligence inside. we're having a little bit of trouble." she informed him.
"oh, i'm sure you guys can figure it out. after all, you're just as smart as i am." spencer retorted.
a silence fell upon them as olivia sat down on the pavement of the steps next to him. "look, i know you're having a bad day, but we really need you to help us with this case. afterwards, you can go back to being grumpy at everyone and everything."
"no offense, griffins, but we don't really know you like that. so, you can stop trying to act like we've known each other for years." spencer retaliated sharply, not even trying to maintain eye contact with her.
liv thought about emily's words of how the way spencer's acting shouldn't affect her impression of him. she slightly nodded her head, understanding his obvious feelings towards her. "okay, i get it, i'm new here and you're not quite fond of me, and you're upset about the whole emily situation. but just please come back inside and help us with this case, considering that this is your job."
the mention of emily and her faking her death caught his attention, resulting him to actually look at olivia, "did they tell you about emily?"
"yeah, they did. is it an issue that they did, because if so, then i'm sorry for. . ." olivia thought carefully about her next words, not sure if spencer would be even more upset if she didn't.
but before she could say anything else, spencer shook his head, "no, um, you know what, i'm going to go back inside. you don't need to apologize." he seemed genuine. or well at least olivia couldn't find any tone of sarcasm in his voice. the two adults stood up, olivia opening the door to the precinct, letting him go in first. he nodded his head at her, implying a sign of thanks.
"i don't think we're dealing with a typical homeless person. he's good with chemicals, owns a car. i think the only mistake in our profile was assuming there was something wrong with his physical composition, reducing him to some sort of stereotype." reid thought aloud, as both him and olivia walked in the conference room of the police precinct.
the team was glad that olivia was able to get him to help them. however, they resumed working on the case like any other. they were also able to arrest the unsub and save tammy headstone, the most recent victim, before it was too late.
the team was now on the jet, half of them being asleep due to the exhaustion the case has caused them. despite her tiredness, olivia decided to go to the back of the jet to get herself a cup of coffee. when taking a sip, emily walked towards her. "hey, what'd you think of your first case with us?" the dark haired woman asked.
"tiring." olivia joked, "but it was really nice solving a case with you guys. you're all super good at your jobs, i can't really comprehend it."
emily just smiled in response. she likes olivia. she thinks there's this certain charm to her that makes her seem nice to be around. "i don't know what you said to reid, but thank you. we probably would've had more trouble getting him to help us if it weren't for you."
liv waved her hand in dismissal, "no, it really wasn't much trouble. i kinda just begged him to go back inside and help, and it only took a few remarks to do so."
"he'll warm up to you, he's just not very good with change." emily assured the griffins girl.
"thanks," olivia responded. "you should go talk to him and work things out. i know i said to give him time, but maybe he's cooled down by now."
emily nodded her head and walked to where spencer was sitting. olivia felt like she really helped, which was something she likes to do if someone ever asks her. she could already feel herself growing an emotional attachment to the team. except for spencer, but maybe it'll just take time.
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the next day, olivia was invited to rossi's place to watch him give a cooking lesson to the team. she happily accepted the invitation. it warmed her heart to know that they were comfortable with her enough to join in on their personal activities. of course, she did ended up thinking that they were just being nice and felt bad if they didn't invite her. but in actuality, they just want to know her more and just by having her around the other day, they enjoyed her presence.
"cooking is the most sensual art form," rossi began, his eyes glanced from each team member; emily to olivia to jj to morgan to hotch to penelope. "and these are my paints."
"so your hands must be brushes." penelope said.
"don't interrupt." rossi commented before continuing his thought process. the three other women glanced at each other, letting out soft chuckles. then, pasta was being handed to all of them, emily taking a bite and softly mumbling to jj and olivia, "it's kinda good."
when demonstrating the rest of the cooking process for the meal, the doorbell rang, morgan getting up to answer it. jennifer was about to take a sip of her wine before rossi stopped her from doing so, causing soft giggles coming out from everyone.
"sorry i'm late." the familiar voice resulted the team looking in the direction the statement came from. spencer reid wearing a blue shirt with a blazer over it walked over to the rest of team, standing between jj and olivia.
"so, uh when do we get to drink the wine?" emily asked.
"almost there." david rossi answered, "i start at the beginning, you eat what you cook. i'll supervise, but we're gonna do this all together, just like . . . a family."
jj raised her glass of wine, "okay, now?" rossi nodded his head as him and everyone else raised their glasses of wine, "salute!" he cheered followed by the rest of them saying salute back.
they all clinked their glasses with one another. olivia turned her glass to spencer, almost forgetting that he still wasn't fond of her. although, he did give in and clink his glass with her's. he just thought everyone was having a nice moment, so why ruin it by starting something with olivia?
and it was clear to olivia that that was his mindset considering the change of his facial expression when turning to olivia. she wasn't too bothered by it anyway. she had already made six friends, which was the most friends she's made at one time. the sound of laughter and glasses clinking with one another was something olivia wouldn't forget. she just felt so welcomed by them and she had a really great time that night.
ANGIE'S NOTES ☺︎︎
the next chapter will be a little chapter
ab liv and anna bc they're my precious
babies asf <3
also, as mentioned before in the
introduction to this story, there may
be some triggering topics so i will be
adding trigger warnings at the top of
those chapters! have a great day besties