[3.14]
"i am not bad at cooking mama"
There had only been a handful of cases in the few weeks that Florence had been at the BAU. Most of them were short cases, which didn't require much help from her or Garcia. Because of that, Garcia decided that the best thing Florence could do was to take old paper files and digitize them. It would definitely take a long time to do them all, but Garcia was hoping to have everything online in the next year or two.
Florence had spent two full days scanning in and organizing files from forever ago, and by the third day, she was bored out of her mind. Given that Garcia wasn't in their office, Florence figured it wouldn't hurt to roam around.
Of course, she ended up being just as bored in the bullpen. Prentiss wasn't in yet, JJ and Garcia were talking in her office about something with the door closed, Rossi wasn't in his office, Derek was who knows where, and Hotch and Reid had flown to some state Florence had forgotten the name of to interview some serial killer on death row. She ended up sitting at Reid's desk, though she didn't touch any of his things just in case they were important.
That was how Prentiss found her when she arrived for the day — spinning around in fast circles in Reid's chair. She watched Florence for half a minute, expecting her to get tired and stop, but the girl just kept going. Prentiss chuckled to herself before grabbing the back of the chair, which halted the spinning.
Florence wobbled in the chair and put her arms out to try and steady herself as the room kept spinning around her. She sighed heavily.
"Emily, I have a fancy exciting job at the FBI. I should not be this bored out of my mind," she complained. "Reid isn't here to tell me facts and Hotch isn't here for me to annoy. Those have become my two favorite pastimes."
"Go talk to Rossi about the differences between Team Edward and Team Jacob until he gives you twenty bucks to go away like last week," Prentiss replied, putting her bag down at her desk.
Florence pointed to his office. "Not here either."
Prentiss furrowed her brows and looked towards the empty office. It was odd that Rossi wasn't in, and what confused her, even more, was the piles of folders and paper scattered all over the floor.
"What the hell," she murmured, leaving her desk to check his office. Florence, dying for something to do, jumped up and followed her. Soon, she gathered Morgan and JJ to check out his office too. Florence stood quietly to the side, not quite sure of what they were looking for.
"Hotch is in Connecticut, right?" Prentiss asked.
"With Reid. They left last night," JJ answered. "They're doing a custodial interview. Chester Hardwick."
"Oh, damn." Florence could only assume by Prentiss and Morgan's faces that he was a bad dude.
"He doesn't need anything else on his mind when he's dealing with a guy like Hardwick," Morgan said.
"What do we do?" Prentiss asked.
"You got any idea what Rossi was working on?" Derek asked.
JJ was hesitant to answer. "I think Garcia might know. He stopped by her place last night."
"Why?" Florence asked. She was pretty sure she wouldn't enjoy a house visit from her boss.
"I'm not supposed to say," Garcia said, appearing behind them. Florence looked at her and noticed how conflicted she looked. "He said he wanted to keep it between us."
"Penelope," Prentiss said gently. "Rossi is a guy who color codes his handwritten notes in his notebooks. Blue pen for evidentiary items, red pen for supposition and theory. The guy is a fussy, anal, retentive neat freak who never leaves anything out of its place. I would say this is a scream for help."
"He's in Indianapolis," she told them, "on a twenty-year-old double homicide. He said it's time someone pays for it."
"Indianapolis? "Morgan asked, frowning.
"Yeah. He took a commercial flight this morning. He picked up a Bureau SUV half an hour ago."
"Jet's available," JJ told them.
Morgan nodded. "Let's go."
The three of them went off, leaving Garcia and Florence alone, the latter of which loudly groaned.
"That was somewhat exciting but I'm still bored," she grumbled. "And if I digitize one more file today, I'm gonna scoop my eyeballs out."
Garcia playfully rolled her eyes at her. "How many cases did you manage to get in the system since you started two days ago?"
"Every case from 1933 to 1941," Florence stated, pouting.
Garcia's mouth opened slightly. She had assumed that Florence had barely made a dent the last few days — it was a fair assumption. Every time she had looked over at Florence at her station, she had been singing songs from Mamma Mia and shoving junk food in her mouth. Garcia had no idea how she managed to make her way through almost ten years of BAU cases.
"Okay, I think it's fair to say that you have earned a break," Garcia admitted. "Stay in the office in case I need you for Rossi, but you're free to do whatever you want on your laptop or your phone."
"Can I play on my DS?" she asked, brightening up.
"You brought your DS to work?" Garcia asked, chuckling.
"I bring my DS everywhere."
|||
Florence was in the middle of making Squid Tempura on Cooking Mama when a man quietly entered their office. She glanced at Garcia, who hadn't noticed his entry as she was too focused on her computer. The man nodded awkwardly at Florence before holding a finger up to his lips, asking her to stay quiet. Florence shrugged and went back to her game.
The man looked over Garcia's shoulder at her screen. "Beautiful."
"Oh my—!" Garcia exclaimed. She whipped her head around quickly, which then frightened the man, making him scream.
"I'm s - sorry," he stuttered out nervously. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just, uh, you just look so beautiful multitasking."
Garcia glanced at Florence, who was glaring at her game — which probably meant she had messed up — before looking back at him. "What are you doing here?"
"I work here too."
"Yeah, in your own office. Two floors down."
"I can't come over and visit?"
"Are you insane?" Garcia asked, freaking out as he moved in to kiss her. She stopped him with her hand. Florence glanced at them for a moment, smirked, and went back to her game.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Have you forgotten last night?"
"I will never forget last night," he said.
Florence pretended to gag, which Garcia saw out of the corner of her eye.
"We were caught fraternizing by one of my bosses." Florence bit her lip to keep from laughing. Garcia had definitely left that little detail when she told the others about Rossi visiting her last night.
"You know," he said, clearing his throat. "It was rude of Rossi to show up at your place after work hours."
"Rude? You found him rude?"
He nodded and puffed out his chest. "You know, maybe I should have a talk with him. Straighten him out."
"You want to straighten out Agent Rossi?" she asked in disbelief.
"No, what I want is for me to be able to come up here and... and kiss my girlfriend. An - and if that means that I have to talk to him, well, then - then that's what I'll do."
"Girlfriend?" Garcia repeated while Florence mouthed the word in surprise. He nodded and smiled shyly at her.
"Kevin," she said, touching his chest. Finally, Florence had a name for him.
"Yes?"
Garcia grabbed the front of his shirt and began backing him out of the room. "If you get within one hundred feet of Agent Rossi, I will unleash an unrecoverable virus on your personal computer systems that will reduce your electronic world into something between a Commodore 64 and a block of government cheese." She shut the door in his face but quickly opened it again. "Call me later."
"So," Florence said, pausing her game and smirking at Garcia. "You wanna tell me about this fraternization you've got with Kevin?"
Garcia chuckled. "Why don't you just go back to being bad at Cooking Mama."
Florence gasped. "I am not bad at Cooking Mama!"
"Have you gotten three stars on a single dish in the last thirty minutes?" Florence stayed silent and pouted. "My point exactly."
"I'm switching to Nintendogs," she grumbled. "But seriously though, did Rossi walk in on you guys fuc—"
"I'd rather not discuss the details, Ren," Garcia cut her off, blushing. "I've got to video call the team about Rossi's case. I'll let you know if I need anything."
|||
Florence hadn't been paying too much attention to the case that Rossi was working. It wasn't an official BAU investigation, and given that it was twenty years old, she figured no one was in immediate danger. She did leave her headphones out though so that she could somewhat know what was going on.
She did pause her game in the middle of walking her chihuahua named Spencer when Garcia received a call from Rossi. Florence definitely wanted to see how he'd react once he found out the others were coming.
"Agent Rossi?" Garcia greeted.
"Anything come back yet on that print?"
"No. No matches. Nothing on file. Sorry," she replied.
"What about my notes?"
"Those I have," she said. ""Do you have a PDA? Florence digitized them and I can email them to you."
"What's a PDA?" Rossi asked, making Florence raise her eyebrows.
"It's a personal digital — never mind. Is there a fax number where you're at?"
"What's a fax number?" Florence couldn't help but ask, now feeling like Rossi.
"I'm at the Palmer Hotel. I'll be back there later. I don't have the number."
"Okay, I will find it."
"Thanks," Rossi said. "All right, I'll check back with you in—"
"Oh, and," Garcia nervously interrupted him. "Sir, there's something else that you should know. Agents Prentiss and Morgan found your office in disarray this morning."
"So?"
"Well, they're concerned about you.
"Well, tell them not to be," he replied, annoyance clear in his tone.
"Yeah, uh, Sir, that's the thing, see? I'm sorry—"
"You told them about this case?" Rossi accused, raising his voice. Garcia tensed up.
"Yeah, I'm — we're all worried about you."
"Damn it! I asked you to keep this between us."
"I'm sorry, Sir. I know, and..." Garcia paused and shut her eyes tightly.
Florence sighed and walked over to stand behind her. "Rossi, they're coming to you."
"They're coming here?" he asked angrily. "I don't need anybody's damn help!"
Rossi abruptly hung up on them. Florence gently pat Garcia on the shoulder in a comforting manner.
"Well, that could've gone better."
Garcia took a deep breath. "Definitely. Ugh, he hates me now."
"At least he hates all of us now," Florence told her, walking back to her chair. "Hey, I've got something I think might cheer you up a little."
"A present?" Garcia asked, perking up the tiniest bit. "For moi?"
Florence dug around in her backpack before finding what she was looking for. She pulled out a bracelet woven out of bright neon colored embroidery thread. She grinned brightly and held it out.
"Is that a friendship bracelet?" Garcia asked, grinning. Florence nodded as she took it from her. "Why are you literally the cutest thing on the planet?"
Florence shrugged and smiled. "I was simply born cute."
Garica laughed and slipped in on her wrist, tightening the straps. "I can't wait to flaunt this in front of Derek and make him jealous."
"I'm gonna make one for everyone eventually probably — well, maybe not Hotch. He'd probably throw it away. I've just got to figure out color schemes for everyone."
"Hotch would not throw it away," Garcia said, smiling softly. "I mean, he definitely wouldn't wear it, but he'd keep it for sentimental value. Inside he's actually a big softie."
"I'll keep that in mind," she said, leaning back in her chair. "So, need me for Rossi's case yet? If not, I'll try and get a few more files done for the day."
"Knock yourself out, babe."
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It didn't take too long for Rossi and the others to solve his case. Once they contacted the original children of the victims, more and more pieces fell into place. They had found the man at the carnival he worked at, and even though he didn't mean to murder their parents, he would be going to prison for it.
Once Florence knew that the team was on their way back, she made her way to the bullpen to wait for them. That was where she found Reid, who she wasn't aware had arrived back from his trip with Hotch.
"Teach me something, Boy Genius," she said, sitting in Morgan's chair and spinning around.
"Any topic in particular?" he asked, smiling warmly.
"Hmm, dinosaurs."
"Dinosaur fossils have been found on all seven continents," Reid started, sitting up straighter. "There are approximately seven hundred known species of dinosaurs, though they continue to discover more. The very first dinosaur to be named was Megalosaurus and it was named in 1824 by Reverend William Buckland. Megalosaurus means 'great lizard' and it was nine meters long and three meters tall."
"Thanks, Spence," Florence said, grinning. She knew she wouldn't remember any of those things, but it made Reid happy — something he probably needed after interviewing a serial killer all day. "So, how was your day in Colorado?"
"Connecticut," he corrected, chuckling as she winced. Her mistake didn't stop him from going over his day with Hotch. Whenever she had a question about the interview process, he didn't hesitate to explain in further detail.
Once she had spent enough time with Reid, Florence went to say hello to Hotch, who was signing some paperwork in his office. She knocked on his door and poked her head in.
"Hello, Turner and Hotch."
Hotch scoffed and looked up at her. "Have you ever even seen that movie?"
"Nope," she said, shrugging. "Rossi just told me the name of it and said I could use it for nickname material. Said it was a buddy cop movie."
"Did you need something, Florence?" Hotch had fallen in the habit of calling her by her first name like everyone else on the team did, instead of her last name like every other agent.
"Yeah," she said, grinning and fully stepping in the room. "Is it true you almost threw hands with the serial killer dude during the interview?"
Hotch sighed and glanced at Reid through his window, who must have mentioned it to her. "I was... momentarily agitated. Reid calmed the situation down though."
Florence was prepared to make another joke but could see that Hotch was clearly bothered by something. It must have been why he was easily worked up.
"Hey, you okay, Hotch?" she asked, showing a hint of concern that none of them had seen before.
Hotch internally appreciated the gesture, but his home-life problems weren't something to unload on an eighteen-year-old girl who had a problem with joking when put in uncomfortable situations.
"I'm fine, Florence. Next time I almost "throw hands" with a serial killer, I'll be sure to ask Reid to video it for you."
"I would appreciate that so much," she said, giggling. Then she turned and saw the rest of the team arriving through the window. "Finally, everyone is back together."
Florence stood just outside Hotch's door.
"Pretty Boy," Morgan greeted Reid. "How was Connecticut?"
"Ultimately uneventful," Reid said. Then he turned to Rossi. "Sir, there's somebody waiting to speak to you in your office."
Florence frowned, having not seen anyone enter his office. She turned and softly gasped when Kevin stepped through the door. She couldn't wait to tell Garcia about it.
"What is it?" Hotch asked, having walked over and joined her at the door.
"Shh," she said, waving him off. "I've gotta hear this."
"Agent Rossi, we need to talk," Kevin said, standing his ground. "About Penelope... Man to man."
Rossi nodded respectfully. "Man to man."
The rest of the team aside from Florence and JJ looked confused.
"What about Penelope?" Morgan asked, not knowing how Kevin was involved with his best friend. Florence couldn't help but lean against the wall and laugh.
"Garcia and Kevin sittin' in a tree," JJ sang, grinning.
Morgan's jaw dropped and he looked back and Kevin and Rossi in his office. "Get outta here. Are you serious?"
"Just when I thought nothing scandalous was ever gonna happen around here," Prentiss said, laughing. Morgan was already marching to Garcia's office.
"What?" Reid asked, cluelessly. "What does that mean?"
"Didn't you hear JJ?" Prentiss asked.
"The song meant something? No, I missed it," Reid said, looking between Prentiss and the baffled Florence.
"Reid, are you serious?" Hotch asked, surprisingly joining the conversation.
"What?"
"I can't believe I know something you don't know," Florence said, finally able to stop laughing. "Okay, okay. I'll finish the song. Garcia and Kevin sittin' in a tree. F-U-C-K-I-N—"
Prentiss had quickly marched over to Florence and put a hand over her mouth while Hotch sighed loudly.
"Those aren't the words, Ren."