Jason Gideon. Jason Fucking Gideon. Jason Mother Fucking Gideon. He stood in his office with a perplexed look in his eyes while resting his chin on his hand, glancing at a board of their latest evidence, not that there was any recent evidence. Nothing had been heard about Rowan Oak or Tara Barnett, despite her disappearance over thirty years prior. However, his puzzling and thoughts were disrupted when his door was knocked and pushed open to show the arrival of someone new. Aaron Hotchner. 'Jason, I wanted to talk to you about the paperwork on my desk. Did you request a new team member?' He asked curiously, not waiting for Gideon to even look at him.
Aside from a slow nod, Hotch got no other response, and he sighed out. 'They have been asking us to make budget cuts. You can't just enlist a new worker without talking to me first,' he complained while firmly grasping a sheet of paper in his hand.
'They are always trying to make cuts. But that didn't stop them bringing Prentiss to us,' Gideon replied soothingly.
'Her removal was for improper treatments and behaviours in an interrogation as well as delinquent behaviour while working. We do not need a child on the team. A child with anger issues too,' Hotch replied sternly. 'I have enough going on, Jack's not feeling well,' he added tiredly.
'She worked with the counterterrorism department, if they trusted her enough to work there in the first place, then she is good enough for us. And we need to lighten up. I heard that she can find the bright side of anything, and we can both agree that this team is in need of that,' Gideon remarked while making a quick note on the board he was still studying.
Knowing that the transfer was already approved, Hotch couldn't do anything to change the course for the team. 'Fine, but you have to do your own paperwork this week. I have enough to do. And you are in charge of training her up to work according to the team's standards,' Hotch added in defeat.
Seemingly being struck by a moment of genius, Gideon narrowed his eyes at the board and stuck a hand out at Hotch, telling him to leave while he began making furious notes in a book propped on the corner of the desk. Giving in yet again, Hotch backed out and he knew that when she walked through the doors, it would be up to him to give her guidance.
At the end of a long, tiring day, the team were heading out. Their plans were already brewing for what they could get up to after work the following day when Hotch walked down and found the only unused desk on the floor. Gideon stood in his office and worked without thinking, it was up to Hotch to clear the desk that had become a dumping site for agents throughout the office. His evening would be spent cleaning a desk he would never use for himself.
The following day, Hotch arrived early again after changing and feeding Jack so that Haley could get a few more moments of peace before she had to get ready for the day. Sat in his office, buried in his file, a faint set of sour knocks echoed against his door. Glancing out, he noticed that there wasn't another soul in the office, nor were there any signs of coats or bags at any of their desks. 'Come in,' he darkly rumbled, anticipating Strauss.
As the door opened, he watched curiously as a younger woman walked in, her hair was bleached and dyed silver as it brushed just past her shoulders, her eyes shone dark brown and her face was pale with faint freckles splattered over it. Hotch noticed that the woman seemed paler than he had ever met before, but her pink lips were turned up in a smile as she met his eye. Dressed formally with a gun and badge on her hip, he knew she was FBI. Even though her top sat a little low for what he felt was preferable for field work.
Standing, Hotch extended his hand for her to shake. 'Aaron Hotchner, I'm the unit chief for the BAU. How may I help you?' He asked as he sat, pushing his tie against his body to prevent it getting caught on the table.
Stood in short heels, she was the average height for a woman, perhaps even taller than most women were, but she didn't look strong enough to beat Reid in a fight as her hands came to rest in front of her. 'Sorry, I thought you were expecting me. My name's Cecile Sallow, I was due to start here today. This is the sixth floor, isn't it? I know that there is more than just one BAU now,' she rambled while curiously glancing down at the man in front of her. He hadn't offered her a chair, she noticed.
'Oh, yes. I apologise, I was expecting someone else. The documents they provided me with are for someone else, I assume,' Hotch replied as he pulled a slightly crumpled piece of paper out from his drawer before he placed it on his desk for her to read.
Although Hotch couldn't be sure, the report mentioned unhelpful behaviour, which was code for aggressive, and the woman in front of him looked too smiley and gentle. The look in her eye made him think that she felt bad for crushing the carpet below her. Once Cecile had finished reading the report, she sighed and nodded slowly. 'That's me. I behaved in a way my team didn't like, or find appropriate for the interrogation we were working. And my actions were called childish by my old supervisor,' she confessed while gently placing the paper back on the desk and gulping as she bit her lip. 'Did you not receive any of the other paperwork that I sent across? My entire work history and references. I've been a profiler for a number of years now, nearly five if my maths is correct.'
Noticing her crossed arms and fidgeting feet, Hotch studied the woman in front of him. He couldn't fire her, he would have to give her a chance. It would have to happen eventually. 'Why don't you tell me about your history?' He asked while gesturing for her to take a seat.
Sitting almost immediately, Cecile cleared her throat and placed her hands on her knees. 'I started out as a mounted police officer. It isn't what it sounds like. I sat on a horse,' Cecile informed him, adding the last part when she saw his eyebrows furrow. 'There was obviously more to it than just horse riding, crowd control and imposing my presence. And then I enlisted in the Royal Diplomatic Branch, where I served to protect the royal family. My training included self-defence, extensive firearms knowledge, and enhanced driving education. Please don't ask me to expand on what that driving qualification taught me, I still don't know what it was meant to teach me. He just yelled at me for eight hours while I took him for a turn around London. And then I trained and worked with the secret service, working on serious crimes,' she rambled with a smile still fixed on her face.
'All of this in England?' Hotch asked coldly.
'Yes, I started young. And didn't stay for long. Horse saddles are uncomfortable, and it's a boring job. And then I was introduced to the counterterrorism department. They began the process of making me an official agent. The only problem was a difference in opinion in the end. We had different standards for the treatments of prisoners. And then your team came in a while back to interview one of the men I was studying, Agent Gideon heard about me I believe, and my boss put in a good word for me. Despite his dislike,' Cecile admitted finally.
Cecile gave little away as she calmly spoke, never losing her smile as she described her life to him. 'We don't want a loose agent on our team, losing your composure and causing any harm to anyone will not be tolerated. Do I make myself clear?' Hotch asked sternly.
'Crystal clear. I will not compromise my morals for the sake of a case. But as for your terminology, loose has several meanings and cultural references. I will confess that my status as an agent is liberal. Am I even a person?' Cecile replied casually.
Sighing, Hotch knew that her presence was going to stir a lot of trouble for him. Childish didn't quite seem to accurately describe the behaviour of the agent in front of him. 'Agent Sallow, I will be explicit in my statement that you will follow my orders when I give them, if not, your employment with this team will be reviewed and deferred,' he informed her as he raised his voice by a few octaves.
'And I will follow your orders. But I still have my code of ethics, and like I told my last team, I will not commit an act of violence against someone unless it is in self defence, or in the defence of an innocent victim with immediate consequences,' Cecile rebutted. Confused, Hotch narrowed his eyes and creased his forehead while tilting his head to the side. Something wasn't quite adding up. It was because of his reaction that she seemed to come to a realisation. 'You weren't told about what happened, were you?' She asked suddenly.
Shaking his head, Hotch carefully watched the woman in front of him. 'No, the paperwork I presented you with is all I have been able to work with,' he informed her.
'I am not pretending that the individuals I worked to catch were good people, there is no illusion here. But you can imagine my horror when my team leader told me to use physical violence to get through to someone. My behaviour was deemed as wrong because Duncan gave me direct orders, and I refused it. Truth be told, I did the opposite. I gave him some clothes to wear,' Cecile confessed confidently, she was determined not to let Hotch hear her panicked heart.
Finally understanding the miscommunication, Hotch's shoulders dropped an inch as he felt the stress roll off his body in waves. 'That is reassuring, but I hope you know that we will still be keeping a close eye on you,' he confessed while standing up. 'Maybe now is a good time to meet the team. Our morning meeting is due to start soon. It will be a good chance to see how we work, and how you work,' he confessed while grabbing documents from the desk in front of him.
Cecile stood with the most confidence she could muster, following Hotch out to the conference room where the team were already sat, files littering the table while the team loudly joked, laughs ringing around the room. 'Let's get started. We have a lot of cases,' Hotch remarked as he walked in, pulling a chair out for the new agent. However, she failed to realise what he was doing until he gestured for her to sit in the chair while meeting her eye. As she sat, he pushed the chair an inch before she scooted it closer to the table, and he took the chair beside her. 'The Laney case, how has the profile proven for them? Morgan, you led this one.'
Glancing at the agent who hadn't been introduced, the team waited briefly for her name, but she seemed equally as shocked at the abrupt nature of her entwining with the team. Morgan, however, followed orders. 'The police have informed us that a sighting was caught on camera and the physical description matches, they are just waiting for a witness or a match. Some DNA was found at the last scene and the footage proves it's from the UnSub,' he rattled on without looking at the file.
Nodding, Hotch then glanced at another team member. 'Prentiss, you hadn't had the chance to look over the Apple case when we last spoke. What have you found?' He asked sternly.
'A series of sexual assaults by two men, at least. One of them is domineering. None of the victims have been killed as of yet, but a few of them were strangled to within an inch of their life with multiple abrasions, and a few bite marks. The last few were the most severely abused. However, none of them can remember anything other than how they felt, signs of a blindfold have been found with friction on their temples. The UnSubs are getting more aggressive, I believe that we are looking for two white men in their late thirties who get off on watching each other,' Prentiss mentioned as she flicked through the file. 'Oh, the last victim remembered seeing a man at her door. She said that he wore a ring on his right index finger, and held his flowers wrong,' she added quickly.
Taking the chance to look over the photos, Cecile felt her blood harshly pump through her body as it ran cold. Blinking quickly, she looked away from the women's pictures while her breath became laboured. 'Europe,' she murmured to herself while pulling her chair closer to the table and tucking a foot below her.
Eyes turned to her, but as Gideon opened his mouth to ask her to repeat it, Reid suddenly became animated. 'In Europe, they wear their wedding rings on the right hand. Whoever he was, he could be from Eastern Europe. Countries like Latvia and Russia have the custom to wear the wedding band on the fourth finger on the right hand. During the wedding ceremony, those who wear the engagement ring will traditionally transfer the engagement ring from the left to the right, and then the wedding band for both partners goes on the right hand. It was a Roman tradition...' Reid silenced as Hotch cleared his throat loudly.
'A ring on the right hand doesn't mean he is from one of those countries. But it is something to think about,' Hotch remarked while watching Cecile who he had heard speak first.
'The flowers too,' Cecile mumbled before loudly gulping as she tried not to look at the pictures again.
'You're going to need to speak louder, or Spence here is going to over explain your point again,' JJ remarked.
'The flowers, it's traditional for certain countries throughout Europe to carry them upside down, letting the flowers retain liquids while reducing the risk of a misconception if someone wrongly assumes that you are gifting them the flowers when you intend them for someone else,' Cecile remarked louder, earning smirks from around the room.
'British FBI agent, tell me, have you ever had tea with the queen?' Morgan teased.
'I have, actually,' Cecile replied, acting as if she wasn't aware of his snide tone. 'I worked there for a while. Not as interesting as you'd think when you're a glorified security guard.'
'Were you a beefeater? Did you have to wear the big hairy hats?' Garcia asked energetically.
Shaking her head, Cecile smiled at the bouncing ball of colour and energy. 'You're getting beefeaters and the queen's guard confused. But I wasn't either of those. Apologies for side-tracking the meeting,' she rambled before turning back to Hotch.
'Agent Sallow, I want you to work on this case with Prentiss. As long as you think you can handle it,' Hotch remarked, sizing her up as he noticed her sightly panicked state. 'Something triggered a response, your heart is visibly racing,' he added sharply. Hotch didn't know why he was daring to push her. Part of him felt bad for behaving the way he did on her first day.
'It doesn't strike me as professional to stare at a co-worker's chest,' Cecile muttered for him to hear. Her small giggle after her words did little to take the worry from Hotch's eye. 'Don't worry, I'm into it, Agent Hotchner,' she jokingly teased, louder than before as the team watched their exchange curiously.
AN: first chapter down. Might get the second one done today. It's going to get a little interesting for Hotch 🤪.
I normally put a picture at the top of the chapter but my recent books glitched and the image didn't publish so I'm going to see if it works when I put the picture in the text. Love you all xx