CHAPTER ONE
"IT WAS NICE TO MEET YOU,
AGENT HOTCHNER."
( A LONG MORNING )
TEACHING WAS SOMETHING THAT Natalie Dolan loved. The thirty year old absolutely loved being able to share knowledge with the kids in her classroom. The idea of helping them learn and possibly grow as people filled her with joy. She loved being able to share ideas and communicate with the students as well as the other teachers at the school. Still, though, there were hard days where the students were getting on her last nerve, or there were days when it was tough to correctly explain whatever it was she was teaching that day. But then there days where she got to see excitement grow in a few students when they understood things, and days where not only she enjoyed it, but the students as well. Those were the days she loved the most when teaching.
Natalie sat at her desk at the front of the classroom, near a corner so it wasn't blocking some of the student's views of the board on the wall. Various stacks of papers – graded, not yet graded, study guides she needed to hand out and others – sat on the surface, as well as a few pens and pencils and the remote to the smart board. As one of the English teachers for tenth and eleventh grade, and the World History for eleventh grade, and the teacher for the elective Psychology for all grades, she constantly had stacks of papers everywhere. On her desk at school and various spots at home. Not only stacks, but large binders to keep organized and notebooks filled with her own notes to help herself when making PowerPoints for the students to take notes from.
The woman stuck the red pen in her mouth as she reached over to one side of her desk, grabbing the planner with the list of students in each class period. She then carefully moved away the stack of Psychology tests she was grading to a free spot, and marked who was in class as the students did their morning work. Once that was done, she rolled herself in the chair to her computer (more like a slight roll and a turn) and went to mark them as present on the computer.
"Ms. Dolan?"
Natalie hummed. "Yes, Nathan?" She questioned without turning around.
"How do islands not float away?"
She stopped what she was doing, and slowly turned to look at the junior. The teen clearly asked that question to get a reaction from her; he was trying to hide a smile as he acted serious and his friends around him were quietly and not so subtly laughing. A few other students, mostly girls, groaned in annoyance and a few even asked him if he was serious, claiming he couldn't be.
"Nathan," she began, "It's only the start of the day."
"I'm being serious," he tried. "How do islands not float away?"
Sam Ross, who sat in the front row and a best friend of Holly, rolled her eyes in pure annoyance at the boy. "I really hate you today, Nathan."
Nathan glared at Sam from his desk and made a face. "I wasn't talking to you, Sam."
Sam mocked him in a deep voice, making most of the class laugh as Nathan frowned and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as he leaned back in his seat.
Natalie kept herself from laughing. "Alright, everyone stay calm. Sam, don't tell others you hate them, it's rude. Nathan, I know you're not being serious, so I won't answer your question. Now, get ready, we're about to take notes on a few Chinese dynasties." She then turned back around and submitted in the roll of who was there and who wasn't on PowerTeacher, listening as she heard the students pull out binders, notebooks and pens to take notes. Then, she pulled up the correct saved PowerPoint from her plugged in hard drive and got it ready before turning on the smart board.
A knock on the classroom door made her look away from the computer screen, stopping her from double checking that it was the correct PowerPoint. She looked at the small window on the door and raised an eyebrow at seeing a dark haired man she didn't recognize. She looked at the slide and saw that it was the right one as she stood up and moved away from the desk.
"Alright, go ahead and start copying the first slide down," she tapped the smart board with her finger as she walked passed it, "I'll be right back." Natalie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she opened the classroom door and stepped out to meet a man with dark hair and eyes to match. He was tall and looked tired as he stood there in the suit and tie he wore. He looked to be older than her by around a decade. "Hi...uh...?"
"Hi, I'm Agent Aaron Hotchner. I'm part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit at the FBI," he introduced himself, the two shaking hands. "You and the sociology teacher had called asking if someone could come in and talk about a few things with the students?"
Natalie's eyebrows rose. "Oh! Yes, that. Yes, Mr. Rogers and I would love if you could do that. If not, I totally understand, you're busy people over there." Her ears picked up the growing volume in the classroom through the cracked door in that moment, and it seemed that Aaron Hotchner had noticed as well, eyes glancing towards the door. She stuck her hand in and snapped a few times, the sound quieting down almost instantly.
"That's why I'm here," Aaron told her. "I could have called, but I was nearby so I figured I'd stop by and get an understanding as to what you would like a few members of my team to talk about."
"Anything, really, um... The different types of disorders, like schizophrenia and depression, and a few others. They're learning the basics of everything right now, but in Mr. Rogers' class the students are learning about how things can affect a group of people. Society. Like, a murder. How it can affect the town or city, or even the state. Both classes are doing a project at the end of the semester where they're supposed to do a short presentation on what they learned, and I figured you guys coming would help them learn a few things better. It'll peek their interests a bit more."
The man smiled. It was a small, but it there. "I'm glad to see that you're putting effort into this," Aaron told her. "Not many teachers would be so serious about an elective."
Natalie shrugged and folded her hands together. "Psychology and sociology might just be two electives for them, but in some ways it could help them better understand the world and get ready for it. Plus, I just want what's best for my kids. I want to see them grow academically and learn all they can." She could've went on. She could have talked about how they were already learning more and that already were most of them growing academically, and she could've gone on a ramble about how she's proud of them and how she loves teaching. But she prevented herself from doing so. Those words were mostly reserved for her parents and Amanda Bentley, and occasionally the random few teachers who share her love for the kids.
"I can tell you're a great teacher, Ms. Dolan," Aaron said.
She grinned and told gave him a thank you, eyes shining.
"I'll tell my team what you told me about what to talk about. And it's during the class before lunch, correct?"
"Yes, sir, it is. It was nice meeting you, Agent Hotchner, thank you for stopping by."
"My pleasure. See you tomorrow, Ms. Dolan."
With that, once the two exchanged goodbyes, Aaron turned to leave and Natalie entered her classroom, demanding the room full of teenagers to pay attention. It wasn't easy; it was rather difficult, and Natalie could tell it was going to be a long morning.
+++
The Behavioral Analysis Unit at the FBI Headquarters in Quantico had multiple people walking through the walls and sitting at their respective desks. It wasn't busy, per se, but there were a good amount of people there; not many teams were on cases so that mean a lot of agents were there instead doing desk work and such. Among them was Spencer Reid and Jennifer Jareau, or JJ as most friends and family called her. The had barely started but they felt like the day was taking forever to go by. Spencer had finished up some of the desk work already and JJ was procrastinating the slightest as the two best friends talked about mundane things.
"Hey, have either of you seen Hotch? He's usually already here, especially these past few weeks," Derek Morgan walked up to them both. Slight concern was etched across his features but mostly confusion.
"No, actually," JJ said. "Is something wrong?"
"Is he not in his office?" Spencer asked.
Derek shook his head. "Everything's fine, I just need to give him this file. Who knows, maybe he slept in for once."
JJ let out an amused chuckle. "Hotch?" She shook her head. "Sleeping in? I doubt it. I'm sure he had to do something for Jack, or something."
"Hotch sleeping in and running late is like me not drinking coffee," Spencer joked, "it'll never happen. But, hey, speaking of coffee – did you know that coffee beans aren't beans at all? They're seeds, or pits, of berries from a Coffea species that is native to tropical Africa and Madagascar, the Comoros, Mauritius, and Réunion in the Indian Ocean. We only call them beans because they have a resemblance to legumes." He looked at his two friends and smiled.
Derek chuckled. "The more you know."
"Yeah," JJ said, "that's actually really interesting, Spence, I didn't know they weren't beans."
"Do you not find the other facts I say interesting?"
For a split second, the two looked like deer caught in headlights because that is most definitely not what JJ was saying. Spencer said interesting things all time. Thankfully, though, she was saved by Aaron Hotchner walking in.
"Hey, Hotch, where've you've been?" Derek asked the team leader as he gave him the file.
Aaron took it without hesitation and explained with ease. "At Valley Grove High." Instantly, the three had looks of confusion, so he continued. "Nothing bad happened, don't worry. Two teachers who teach the electives psychology and sociology want some of us to come in tomorrow and talk about what we do, general psych stuff and how certain things can effect large groups of people."
"Oh, yeah, I remember you telling us about possibly doing this now," JJ said. "Is the whole team going?"
The man shook his head. "Maybe about four. I was thinking definitely you three, and maybe Rossi."
Derek made a sound at the back of his throat. "Don't get me wrong, I don't kind going to schools and talking about what we do – the couple times we've done it, it's been fun. But only because of the kids. The teachers always try to act like they know more than us."
"Ms. Dolan isn't like that at all," Aaron quickly defended the woman with ease. "She's a natural born teacher. She wants to watch the kids grow in their knowledge, and was understanding of if we couldn't make it tomorrow. She was clearly excited, too."
Derek raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Well that's a nice change," JJ admitted. The blonde had also been hesitant for the exact same reasons Derek was, but now at hearing this teacher, for the most part, wasn't like the others made them a bit exited as well. "What time?"
"Get there around ten twenty."
"I'm not good with teenagers, Hotch," Spencer finally spoke up and expressed his current concern.
"What do you mean? You're great with kids."
"Kids and teenagers are very different. Kids are easier to entertain and make laugh, but it's not so easy with teenagers. It's hard to get their attention, especially regarding things about school, and in case you haven't noticed, they probably won't want to hear me talk statistics and facts."
Derek sighed and patted his shoulder comfortingly. "We're all going to be saying facts, man, you just have to find a good way to get them to listen."
"Do some magic like you do with Henry," JJ suggested, giving a small shrug after. "Anyone pays attention when that's involved."
Spencer was quiet then as he thought about what they had told him. Both had a point. He just had to figure out a way to get the teens to listen and somehow incorporate the close up magic that he knew how to do.
***
A/N— I'm kinda proud of this chapter? I mean, I don't think it's the best hung I've ever written, there are certainly places that need improvement, but I am proud. The CM characters might be the slightest out of character but that's because I've never written them before; I am keeping how they would respond to things in mind, though. Like, I had Spencer ramble the slightest bit and only had JJ call him "Spence" bc I don't think anyone else does. But yeah.
Also!! I've decided this will eventually head into season 9. Idk when; maybe by chapter 10, maybe later, maybe earlier. I honestly don't know. But I've been rewatching season 9 with my sister bc she hasn't seen all of CM yet, and I've seen some episodes I really want to get into. For the most part, though, it'll still be an AU since Natalie definitely won't be joining the team on cases.
Also: sorry for any weird typos/typos that don't make sense, especially in the second half. It's past midnight, I'm tired, but I still wanted to write so. Yeah. Plus I'm on my phone, and autocorrect is a bitch.
That's all! I really hope you liked this chapter, and please don't forget to vote and comment/give feedback!! Love you all xx