"Where's Hotch?" Reid asks when everyone but Hotch gets to the conference room.
"He's joining later. He had something to take care of." Gideon answers.
"Is this about last night?" Prentiss asks looking over at me and I shrug not have had heard anything from him.
"I don't know, all he said was he would meet us when he could." Gideon says looking down at the file.
Derek glances at me with a smirk, but I just look down at the folder. I don't feel like reliving last night, especially with the rest of the group.
"What do we got?" I ask changing the subject.
"10 years ago. The rib cage of a male was found in the Desert Rose National Park. It was never identified. This morning the remains of two victims were found in almost exactly the same area." JJ explains.
"Well, one year later is cause for concern, but 10 years? That as a coincidence." Prentiss scoffs.
"No it's not." I mutter and she looks over at me with furrowed brows.
"Danika's right, all three victims were missing the same rib bone." Reid speaks up.
Hotch's POV:
"Detective Stabler told me you wanted to talk with me." Dr. Huang says as I walk into his office.
"Yeah, he said you might be able to help me with something." I say not knowing how to word it.
"Please, have a seat." Dr. Huang offers and points to a chair.
"Thanks." I say and take a seat not knowing how to feel in this situation.
"How about we start with what brings you here." He offers seeing that I'm not sure where to begin.
"Well, I have an agent on my team. She's..." I start saying but don't know what word to use to describe her.
"Difficult?" He guesses and I chuckle.
"That would probably be an understatement." I scoff thinking of how much trouble Danika has caused.
"Is she a danger to herself or others?" He asks the question I didn't want to be asked.
"Well, it depends on what you define danger as." I say looking at my hands in my lap.
"Does she put her or others at risk for harm? Does her behavior often lead to incidents like this?" He asks and I sigh and nod my head.
"It's complicated." I admit and look up and he just looks at me and tilts his head.
"How so?" He questions.
"On one hand, she's done things that put her in harms way, yes. But in the other hand, it comes with the territory." I say.
"How about you give me an example." He orders and I sigh.
"Well, on our first case she had a bomb strapped to her chest." I shake my head and chuckle remembering how all of that went down.
"On her first case? That's quite extreme." He exclaims obviously not predicting that.
"Yeah, well...she got hit by the car the Unsub was driving. I was told that she was still on the windshield and climbed into the passenger window." I start explaining and he furrows his brows.
"The bomber had the upper hand and knocked her out. Next thing I know she's walking into the station with a bomb strapped to her chest." I explain and he listens.
"How did you feel in that moment?" He asks and I gulp.
"Worried." I answer.
"About the bomb?" He asks and I nod.
"It was a station full of officers and..." I start saying but stop.
"What?" He probes.
"But, in that moment, I wasn't thinking about them, or even my team." I confess.
"What were you thinking about?" He asks and I huff.
"I was worried for her." I admit.
"That's a natural response to a situation like this. She's part of your team, and she was in danger." He nods his head.
"So, how did she react?" He asks and I chuckle.
"She was completely calm when she walked in. She made a joke about how this wasn't what she meant when she wanted to be more involved." I divulge.
"Alright, and obviously the situation was resolved." He continues moving on.
"Look, I knew that she would be difficult to manage when I brought her onto the team, it's not like I wasn't expecting some...pushback." I start saying.
"Why did you expect pushback?" He questions.
I huff and fold my hands. I lean my elbows on my knees and bow my head.
"Like I said, it's complicated." I try to get out of the question but he isn't budging.
"In order for me to give you advice I need to know how this started." He explains and I nod my head knowing he's right.
"She didn't join the team in the usual route. Um, she was recruited by Gideon and I." I start explaining and he tilts his head.
"Like the computer girl Garcia?" He questions and I nod my head.
"Sorta. A bit different than that." I say and he furrows his brows.
"How do you mean?" He asks and I explain how we first met and explain the details behind it all.
He just sits there and tries to take everything I said in. He thinks for a moment before speaking.
"Does your team know?" He asks and I sigh.
"All but one." I admit and he quirks a brow.
"She just joined the team. Agent Emily Prentiss." I explain.
"How did the others take it?" He questions.
"Morgan didn't seem too phased. Him and Danika hit it off right away. JJ seemed a bit worried but trusts mine and Gideon's judgement. Reid was a bit skeptical but warmed up to her quickly. The only person who didn't get along with Danika was Elle Greenaway. But she's no longer on the team." I say and he tilts his head.
"Why do you think agent Greenaway didn't get along with Danika?" He questions and I scoff.
"The first time Danika came into the station Elle pointed a gun to her head." I explain.
"She wasn't told in advance that Danika would be joining the team?" He asks.
"None of them were. Danika didn't want them to have the heads up and try something." I shrug.
"Danika requested it?" He inquires.
"Yeah." I shrug.
"From what you told me the only other option she had was prison. So why did she get any say in who would be made aware?" He questions and I sigh.
"Because we needed her more than she needed us." I admit and now he looks confused.
"How so?"
"Well, she had no actual problem with going to prison; heck she'd probably thrive there. We needed another agent on the team, one who showed true potential." I start to explain.
"But why her? What was so special about her? Other than what she did before she joined the team?" He asks.
"She sized Gideon and I up the moment we walked into the room. She knew exactly what we wanted to hear, knew how to act, what to say. She could read us like a grocery list, with ease and quickly." I start to explain.
"That's what profilers do." He counters.
"Not that well." I chuckle and shake my head.
"We always say that unsubs are the best profilers and it's true."
"Surely there was someone out there with the same potential. Someone without a criminal background." He offers.
"Trust me when I say, there's no one out there like Danika. I've never met someone who could look at a file and put together the profile, MO, victimology, unsub and motive in mere minutes. She can tell you who did it, why, how, the series of events, what the victims felt, what the unsub felt, what led up to the murder." I explain and he looks perplexed.
"All that from a file?" He asks intrigued and I nod.
"So, why do you have trouble with her?" He questions.
"She doesn't listen." I state bluntly and he furrows his brows.
"Listen to-you?" He asks.
"Anyone. She flies by the seed of her pants, putting herself in danger." I start explaining.
"Does she ignore direct orders?" He asks and I scoff.
"She ignores direct orders more than I use the bathroom." I scoff.
"So, often." He concludes.
"All day every day." I state.
"I can't imagine that being easy." He states and I give him a deadpan look.
"Right, sorry. Um, give me an example of when she ignored an order." He instructs.
"The latest one was last night. She wanted to go to the club with Prentiss and Morgan, but I told her they had it handled she wasn't even supposed to be on the job. But, In Danika fashion she ignored it and went anyway. She ended up being drugged by the bartender and we had to rush her to a doctor who wouldn't put it on record." I admit.
"Why not on record?" He asks.
"Because she had fentanyl and alcohol in her system. That's grounds for being written up, even kicked out of the task force." I explain.
"So the best case scenario would her getting a slap on the wrist and a week of off time. Worst case scenario she gets kicked off the team all together." He reiterates.
"If it was her first offense I wouldn't be worried about the worst case scenario." I scoff.
"You said stuff like happens often. Why do you think she continues this behavior?" He questions and I sigh.
"Honestly, probably just to see how far she can go. How much she can tick me off." I shrug.
"Why do you think that is?" He asks.
"She has no respect for authority. To her I'm authority." I expalin.
"But why does she continue to do it? Wouldn't the first couple of times send the message?" He asks.
"It's not about sending a message, it's about her own amusement." I state deadpan and he tilts his head.
"What makes you think that?"
"When her caseload is low she fills her time with trying to figure out new ways to make me angry at her. She seems to find joy in my pain." I huff.
"Just you?" He asks.
"She might do a few practical jokes around the office, but she doesn't remove all the screws in the desk and wait for them to sit down one for everything to fall apart. She doesn't take the time to wrap every single object in their offices with Saran Wrap." I start listing off a few things she's done.
"Those seem harmless enough." He admits.
"Yeah, that's when she's in a good mood." I state deadpan.
"And when she's in a bad one?" He questions and I shake my head.
"She once stole my car and took it completely apart. Every screw, lug nut, you name it, anything that attached to something else that could be taken off without breaking it, was taken apart." I say and he raises his eyebrows.
"That's quite extreme." He confesses.
"Yeah, not as extreme as what happens when she ignores orders though." I say.
"Stuff getting damaged or removed I can deal with, it's when she puts herself and others in danger because she decided she didn't want to listen." I continue.
"Like the club." He offers and I scoff.
"The club was mild considering what happened when she disobeyed not only my orders but also the unsubs rules." I state.
"Explain." He tells me to continue and I explain the situation with the Fisher King.
"So, she didn't listen and got stabbed with a sword and got her colleague shot?" He asks shocked.
"Yeah, and then after she woke up in the hospital she escaped and got herself blown up too." I add and he raises his eyebrows.
"She doesn't seem to have much self preservation." He claims.
"I don't think she even knows what that means." I scoff.
"So, she has issues with authority, no self preservation instincts and has no respect for other people's boundaries." He starts listing them off.
"Mostly my boundaries." I state.
"Why only you?" He questions.
"I thought I already said, authority." I shrug.
"No, Agent Gideon also represents Authority, but she doesn't go out of her way for him like she does for you. Why do you think that is? What do you think started this?" He asks and I try to think back and something clicks.
"The bike." I scoff and shake my head.
"Bike?" He asks.
"Yeah, she parked in my parking spot the day of her first case. I told her to move it, she refused." I start to explain.
"This is all over a parking spot?" He questions and I sigh.
"When she wouldn't back down I had someone move it to a storage unit. She wasn't too happy about that. But I got her a new bike after the first case. We seemed to have a truce." I explain and he furrows his brows.
"Why did you move her bike?" He asks.
"The parking spot thing is like a way to let them know who's in charge. Since she refused to move it per my request, I moved it for her." I say.
"Trying to show her that what you want, gets done." He claims with a head nod.
"Why did you get her a new bike instead of returning her old one to her?" He asks and I sigh.
"Because her bike was a piece of junk that is wouldn't let in the road. I told her it was in storage and she didn't seem to mind." I shrug.
"So you went out of your way and bought her a new one? Why not just mention that she might want to look into getting a new bike?" He asks.
"I don't know her budget, my brother rides and I figured he would be able to help me find a good one for her, one that wouldn't break down half way to work." I chuckle at the last part.
"So you brought your brother into this as well?" He questions.
"He knows bikes." I shrug.
"Was he aware what this was about?" He asks.
"No, I just said that I was looking at a bike for Haley." I shrug and he quirks a brow.
"Your wife, correct?" He asks.
"Yeah, they're about the same height and weight, why are you giving me that look?" I ask confused.
"You lied to your brother who you were getting the bike for, why?" He questions and I pause.
"So I wouldn't get the look you're giving me right now." I state.
"Do you often buy lavish things for your team?" He asks and I cross my arms.
"No, because they don't need it. They have money, trust me." I scoff.
"And what makes you think Danika doesn't?" He questions.
"Well, for starters we couldn't find a single paper trail on her when we first met her. She didn't have a job or even a bank account." I explain.
"Maybe she had a trust fund." He offers.
"Nothing we could find. Plus the state of her bike didn't indicate that she was well off." I add.
"So you brought it on yourself to make sure she had a nice bike." He reiterates.
"I can't have an employee with a bike that constantly breaks down." I shrug.
"Right, but instead of offering to help pay for a new one, you had your brother help pick one out?" He asks.
"It was a truce from before the first case too." I shrug.
"And she didn't seem to have any problem with it?" He asks.
"At first she did when she thought it was about her getting hit by the car and Elle telling me that it was on purpose, and not to save Elle. But when I assured her that that's not why I got it, she seemed to accept it and thanked me." I explain what went down.
"Did it have anything to do with the car incident?" He questions.
"I mean, after Gideon told me what really happened I felt like an asshole. But that's not why I got her the bike." I assure him.
"Okay. Moving forward, when Danika does something against the rules, what do you do?" He asks changing the subject.
"It depends on what she did. If it's something small I'll give her a warning. If it's big, I'll take her off the case. If it's in between I give her a warning and make sure to keep an eye on her for the remainder of the case." I explain and he seems to think it over.
"So, when you give her a warning, what do you say?" He asks and I sigh.
"Usually something like; knock it off, don't make me ask again. Stuff like that." I shrug.
"Almost like disciplining a child." He states.
"Sometimes it feels like that, yeah." I admit.
"And when it's worse? How do you keep an eye on her?" He asks.
"I usually make her stay near me. If I go to a crime scene she comes along, that sort of thing." I say.
"And how does she act?" He questions.
"Depending on how pissed I am, she can act like a brat, trying to get on my last nerve. Hoping that it'll change my mind and let her go with Morgan."
"And does that ever work in her favor?"
"No. But she still tries." I chuckle.
"So, this is like a cycle. She misbehaves you give her a warning, if it's worse you keep an eye on her, in turn, making her misbehave more in the hopes that it'll annoy you enough that she'll get what's he wants." He starts explaining what he's noticing.
"And when that doesn't work, then what?" He asks about the getting what she wants.
"I'll make her stay in an office at the precinct we're working at." I say.
"Like a time out." He offers.
"Something like that I suppose. Usually I just have her work on the stuff that can be done in the precinct." I shrug.
"So she's still technically on the case. Just doing it alone." He claims and I nod.
"You ever think that maybe that's her goal?" He questions and I furrow my brows.
"No, she hates desk duty. Any time she's injured and I try to put her on desk duty she begs me to let her back out onto the field."
"And when that doesn't work? What does she resort to?" He asks and I huff.
"Destruction of my property." I mutter with my arms crossed.
"Does that usually get her back on the field?" He asks.
"Sometimes, because it's better if I can keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't do anything too drastic." I answer.
"Drastic how?" He inquires.
"Things that could get her arrested." I say not going into further detail.
"Alright. I think I know what you mean." He nods.
"So, what do I do?" I ask.
"Treat her like you would your other team members. Don't try to accommodate to her. I'd she does something out of bounds, do what you would do if the other team members did it." He starts saying.
"Some of the stuff she does I'd terminate them for." I say and he raises his brows.
"Like what?" He asks.
"Hacking into the CIA database, threatening someone with bodily harm. I could go on." I scoff.
"Why does she get away with all of that?" He asks and I sigh.
"Like I said before, we need her more than she needs us. She's an incredibly important asset to the team, with her knowledge and skills." I say.
"Alright, this is what I'm hearing from you; she's on the team for her abilities and skills. Those things help you tremendously with your cases so you don't fire her when she gets out of line." He starts saying and I nod my head in agreement.
"But what I'm not hearing from you is how she as a person is important for the team. How she as a person contributes to solving the cases. How you see her outside of just her job." He continues.
"It's not like we all hang out after work together." I shrug.
"But you're a profiler. It's your job to be able to read people and figure out who they are as a person. But it's almost like you won't let yourself do that with her. And my thinking is that because once you do that, she's no longer just a weapon in your arsenal, or an unsub. She officially becomes someone you are responsible for and someone you have to trust." He explains his thinking and I let out a long sigh.
"You're saying that I still look at her as the unsub in the interrogation room." I clarify and he nods his head and I get what he's saying.
"So how do I change that?" I question not completely disagreeing.
"The next case your working on. Don't automatically become a helicopter boss, see what she does when she's not under a microscope. When she feels trusted to do her job." He offers.
"And if that doesn't work? If she still acts out?" I ask.
"Don't give her the extra attention. Just bench her and focus on the case. When you bench her but still continue to go back to her it's only validating her more. It's giving her the excuse to act out more." He explains.
"Okay, I'll try it. Thanks." I say as I get up out of my seat.
"Let me know how it goes." He says and shakes my hand.